There Were Things I Wanted to Say…..

Sometimes I have something specific that  I want to say, but when I look at the blank sheet in front of me, my mind gets just as wiped clean.  Nothing comes to the surface of my thoughts.  All the important, fun stuff I was going  to say remains buried in the murky depths of the thought scape.

Today, I thought I would try to reverse the process.  I begin with no particular thought in mind.  I write with no fixed destination.  The hope is, that the view will become interesting, that an intriguing scene will spring into being suddenly blooming into a fertile vista that will stretch to the horizon, dragging my eager fingers with it on the keyboard.

It’s been raining for a couple of days reminding me of the children’s tale, “The Cat In The Hat.”  I wonder if Dr. Seuss began his story as a result of being cooped up with his pets by rain.   Perhaps he consoled himself with this tale after having to clean up after dogs and children that needed to go outside occasionally, and also needed to be let back in, mud and all.

We are forecast to have more storms moving in from the west.  It is snowing out there.  Will it get colder here?  Will the water stay on the ground, instead of running off into the already full creek?  I’m reminded of Queensland’s recent inundation.  500,000 cattle were drowned in the flooding.  along with everything else that couldn’t make it out of the area in time.  I don’t anticipate there being that much water here, but them again, Queensland didn’t anticipate that much water either.

We take for granted that we will have time to do things in the future. A future that isn’t guaranteed to happen, and if it does happen, not necessarily in the way we were planning. I have children I was planning on spending more time with, and Grandchildren I wanted to get to know. We don’t always get what we want.

If I had the time to do the things I wanted to do, one of the things would be to build interesting things with them.  To discover their passions, and help them realize even more capabilities.  I’d like to engage with them in creative things they never thought of doing.  To watch them find delight in the work of their hands, and satisfaction in completing a task and watching the results.

I’d like to garden with them, build homes with them, paint with them, and watch their joy.  I’d  teach them to throw pots, make bricks, and make useful, sometimes beautiful items to enrich their lives, and the lives of others. I’d build kilns with them, glaze pots, and fire them into glorious life.  I’d teach them about printing presses, typeset, and telling stories in both pictures and font. Maybe some of these things will get to happen. Maybe this rain won’t destroy the possibilities.  Maybe this rain will inspire me, and them, instead.

If we have time together, I want to hear about what they love, and what they hope to be able to pursue in the future.  I hope that their current experiences don’t lead them to anger, resentment, and destruction.  There is enough of that already in our world.  We are drowning in the results of piled on finger pointing.

We’ve been very carefully taught to play the blame game through our social and educational settings. This attitude is destroying our better creative urges. You can’t make wonderful things while you are engaged in the radical overthrow of everything around you. The two activities don’t compliment each other. I hope we have time to talk about these things. I hope we can re-direct all this pent-up energy back into constructive dialogue, and increased understanding.

We do need a radical overhaul, not necessarily of the physical reality, but mostly of our collective thinking. We need a radical change of heart; a national repentance from where we’ve been, and what we’ve been engaged in.  We all got too comfortable and dis-engaged from duties and responsibilities. We allowed those to fall to others while we pursued petty vanities.

We worked to keep up with the Jones’s and Kardashian’s instead of staying involved in civic planning.  We let people frighten us into giving up not only our freedoms, but also the best of our independence.  We gave up our personal livestock and gardens. We allowed others to dictate what the definition of poverty was.

Instead of a plethora of skills and abilities, which comes with farming and animal husbandry, we fell for the images of wealth, ease, and affluence displayed by those who used the work of our hands to get that.  Our gardens, chickens, pigs and cows were not what held us back. Those are the very things which kept us from positions of begging, of want, and of servitude.

Eventually, we allowed our leadership to trade off our manufacturing jobs, albeit we didn’t understand that was what would happen. We believed the leadership had our best interests at heart.  We weren’t paying attention to history, to what had just happened to others who did the same things, even within our own lifetimes. We allowed ourselves to be distracted by easy entertainment, and rah, rah, chants for teams that played games.  We were lulled by the soothing  sound of “people don’t think that way” and “nobody would do that”, even though we have seen many places where they most certainly Did do that.

If we are fortunate. we will get those jobs back.  If we are dutiful, we can take back control of our civic zoning laws. We can kick out those who wish to frighten us with their tales of health risks, and get back the real health that comes with home grown garden vegetables and clean fertilizer from our own farm animals. Our own chickens will go back to being our natural pesticide squad, and our own cow’s raw milk will be the source of our strength.  Our livestock will once again be the source of our butter and egg money.  Our earned extra.  Our surplus that we use to save and trade for those things we don’t grow or make ourselves.

If we are given the time, if the Good Lord is willing, and the creeks don’t rise, we will rebuild that which was lost. We will improve on what went on before by being more cooperative with each other. We can learn to diversify the works of our hands, while specializing in those things we have a knack for.

Imagine a block of homes, where the open areas are gardened and farmed in a collective effort. Where we put the land under our feet to good use for our health, instead of poisoning it into only growing skinny, short grasses.

Imagine learning to grow edible flower gardens as once was done; where we remember that Passion flowers make good fruit and jelly, and aren’t for just looking at.  The knowledge of these things hasn’t yet been destroyed. It is in our libraries and on the internet. Some of it resides in the memories of our Grandparents, who actually used to do some of the things we’ve lost, or who watched their Grandparents do the things we only see in pictures now.  Our elderly may not have the physical strength they once had, but they have the memories we can learn from. They are a valuable resource, if we will only remember to honor them and allow them to instruct us in a few things once more.

If we can learn to merge the use of the new things, with the activities of the old things, we will be twice as rich, twice as capable, twice as safe, and twice as secure.  We will have the advantages of new creations, with the security of the old skills. We can engage in new pursuits while keeping the ability to do for ourselves, and provide for our own security.  Independence requires work. Work provides dignity and self-respect.  Self-respect is a component of happiness.  The pursuit of happiness isn’t found in too much ease; it’s found while engaged in worthwhile labor.

I hope I live to see my children and grandchildren able to implement these activities. I hope they will have the opportunity to build a better world, a more cooperative world, a more diverse in activities world, a healthier world. We had a world like that once. it was depicted in the 70’s T.V. show “The Waltons.” I hope my Grandchildren live to build it again, and improve on it.

 

Fine Art: What is it and Why is it a Thing?

What is Art?  What is Fine Art?  What and why is there a difference?  I have a degree in Fine Art and an Inter-disciplinary minor in Art History and Religion, which is convenient, since the subject matter of what is Art, and what is Fine art are tied up some in all these subjects.

This piece is a representation of a work of art by myself, Ellen M. Latta, completed in 2017.  It is rendered in oil paint on masonite. The title of the piece is “Choose Well Your Fight”. This particular painting has an original poem painted on the back of the panel also created by me. It would be an interesting detail in any Certificate of Authenticity as in no other place would this poem be rendered in oil paint written in cursive by the hand of the artist.  It is better than a signature, which is easy to forge. The hand-painted poem is not so easy to forge.

The word “art” simply means to make something, thus anything that is made might be called art. Craftsmanship means it’s made to a standard that is recognizably excellent, and possibly repeatable in the same manner. Knitters and crotchetiers are examples of both artists and crafters. Custom furniture makers are another example of artists and crafters. Industrial designers are artists, and the processes that produce the designs are craftsmanship. I salute all the artists and crafters of designs for their excellent contributions to our high standard of living.

Back when Michelangelo was a lad, the landed gentry were not supposed to get their hands dirty. Doing craft work, painting, masonry, carpentry, wagon making, wheel making, blacksmithing, all of these were considered menial labor not to be performed by those who were in charge. That was considered peasants work.  It might be skilled work, but it was still a lowly occupation. The landed gentry learned swords and maces and all sorts of deadly fighting skills, and control tactics.  One of the control tactics then as now, was information and the manipulation and suppression of the same.

As a young lad Michelangelo had watched a stone mason working sculpture and developed a passion for it. His father did not approve, but Michelangelo was not so easily dissuaded.  In order to make the work of his son not be looked down on, Michelangelo’s Father came up with a brilliant plan to separate the craftsman’s work out and created an entirely new field of work approved by the landed gentry for their offspring.

Since information and the manipulation of ideas was part of the landed gentries stock in trade, “Fine Art” was set apart from craft work by the introduction of symbology that conveyed a separate message contained within the work. Sometimes the symbology was hidden, and sometimes it was blatant, but always it was present in the work. Modern Art still contains these requirements to meet the threshold of Fine Art, thus the publicized write up by a recognized art critic is essential.

There are whole books dedicated to the language of symbology.  Certain things present in the work are meant to convey specific meanings. Fruit, flowers, geometry, numbers, or quantities of items all have specific meanings. Animals can represent ideas and concepts as well. Colors always have affects, but also may convey other things depending on the context of the piece. A line may be just a line, or it may point to something.  A shape may be meant to convey a form or a specific idea. The roughness or smoothness of a piece may also convey more than one type of meaning, or such treatment may be meant to provide a more subtle provision.

Fine art lies at the intersection of politics, high-finance, communications, psychology, and craftsmanship; the latter consideration being of less importance than the former. An officially recognized work of Fine Art becomes a vehicle for the protection of or the transfer of wealth. The major fine art auction houses are the international facilitators and officially sanctioned record keepers of these financial exchanges. Museums, and art galleries are secondary vehicles of these transactions.

Art is one of the things that is not taxed in the same way that most property is taxed. It can be used to protect an amount of money. One person may convey an amount of money to another person through the means of a Fine Art purchase as well.  The item purchased should have an authentic seal of approval of it’s possible future value through the use of officially sanctioned Fine Art critics who publicly proclaim an artist’s work to be worthy of the title of collectible.

If a person is conveying an amount of money between parties through the use of Fine Art, it is generally preferred that the art is difficult to make forgeries of.  Documentation is required.  A gestural work, in art’s language, is a rapid stroke that roughly draws a subject.  Gestural Art has found a particularly important niche in the fine art world, as it’s nearly impossible to make a good forgery of a truly large gestural work.

This latter form of abstract art has landed some confused criticism from many who proclaim that their five-year old could make better art than that seen in some museums.  Indeed, it may be true that the five-year old might make a better representation of something; however, the five-year old is not officially sanctioned by authorized critics within the art world to make symbolic art for sale to collectors; thus the sloppily drawn noodles of line that depict whatever fancy has struck the sanctioned artist become a cashable check for those looking to protect their assets with something non-taxable.

When the average person attacks the value of a work of proclaimed fine art, based on the lack of representative craftsmanship, they misunderstand the purpose of the piece. It likely is a representation of money and power and sometimes even position. To treat it as anything else is to threaten the financial stability of many of the world’s top fortune collectors. This was more probably the reason for the Bonfire of the Vanities than the purported religious excuse that was used in the destruction of much of Europe’s Fine Art collections in the middle ages.

One need not actually destroy the works themselves to destroy the financial footing of those who own the work. One needs only destroy the officially sanctioned recognized value of the pieces to drastically reduce the net worth of the individuals who own them. Hitler’s Degenerate Art exhibition, staged by Adolf Ziegler in 1937, was an instance where the acclaimed value of some types of art, or works by individuals who were not approved of by Hitler’s regime, were devalued by proclamation of a Nation state. The devaluation of these artists work, instantly reduced the net worth of many art collectors within Germany and their occupied territories.The more certain method of this destruction though, is to destroy the works themselves, as there is no coming back from that.

Some people are purchasing Fine Art through the Auction houses and immediately shipping it into a vault underground.  This is a form of tax safe haven, and a hopeful insurance check against possible disaster. As with most investments, it’s not guaranteed to pay off, but there is historical precedent for the idea of getting value back at some time in the future.  One might want to store up the auction house catalog as well as the certificate of authenticity and the letter of provenance to the piece as an additional set of proofs of the value of the work.

The certificate of authenticity is a form that the Artist may provide stating that the work in hand is indeed their work and not that of a forger or rogue print maker. The letter of provenance is a detailed history of the trail of owners, verifying that it is legitimately owned and not a stolen work of art.  If a work has been stolen and found and returned to the owner, these details are included in the  history of the work.   With a true work of Fine Art, the certificate of authenticity and the letter of provenance are as important as the work itself to maintain and verify the value of the work.

This is a very general explanation of the realm of Fine Art. If you found this information helpful, write in the comments below. Let me know if there is more you would like to know about the subject of Fine Art, or any particle field  of Fine Art.  I will be happy to provide more detailed information.

 

Ellen M Story, Ellen M. Lattz at emariaenterprises, llc. January 2019.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ellen M Story, Ellen M. Lattz at emariaenterprises, llc with appropriate, and specific direction to the original content.

Are Americans About to Become the New Inscrutables?

via Are Americans About to Become the New Inscrutables?

Are Americans About to Become the New Inscrutables?

Reading through the comment sections of random social posting platforms is so enlightening.  It’s a revelatory process of socio/cultural evolution. Today I saw a post with two headlines from articles which revealed the insidious link between racism and depression, and one that pointed out the weird connection between smiling and racism.  Neither of them were particularly scientific, yet both proclaimed that the theories propounded in them worked. Smiling was supposed to reduce the feeling that racism might be present.  Racism or the perception of racism was a contributing factor to depression in the other one.

Since the headlines were juxtaposed to each other, following on the heels of the most recent excitation of assumed racism fueled rants; one might have got the idea that smiles were to blame for someone feeling assaulted by a racist.  If anyone can put up headlines about racism juxtaposed to any random facial expression, and have a whole slew of other random people jump on it as though it were a heinous assault, true or not, does this mean we all have to have no facial expression in order to make certain we are not offending someone?

When I was a little girl there were some racially connected sayings about people from the orient.. or Far East Asia, or China to be precise.  One of the sayings that caught my attention way back them was “the inscrutable oriental”.   As a little girl, I had to ask what inscrutable meant.  My Dad said it meant that people couldn’t figure them out. I think I took that statement as almost a challenge. As I grew up, I explored a little the art and handiwork of China, what ever came into my hands..  I saw each piece as a possible clue.

Much of the time I was only looking at American manufacturing processes transplanted to Asian soil and then the merchandise shipped back to us.  The earliest pieces were from Taiwan.  Later, I would also have the opportunity to observe pieces made in mainland China.  I became fascinated with Chinese movies (with English sub titles), and when I attended college, when required to take a language, I took Chinese.  I also ended up taking a course in Chinese Geography, which was fascinating but also incredibly intense because it covered so much time and territory in a single semester.

In the end, I finally decided that the reason that western people had such a hard time figuring out the Chinese wasn’t so much that their culture was different; after all, one can learn the different aspects of societal norms.  I eventually came to the conclusion that the most likely reason behind not being able to figure them out was because the people had been trained by centuries of oppression in not giving anything away in their expressions.

If this labeling everything as racist continues in this country, and people keep getting assaulted by hundreds of random strangers because someone somewhere labeled a picture of a facial expression as racist, then we too may become stone-faced and neutral in every interaction. We could become a whole new land full of inscrutable people.

 

 

 

 

How does a Social Credit Score work? And why should I care if I have one?

Recently I accidentally posted a political video to an acquaintance in China. I was excitedly sending something that mattered to me to everyone on my list… and unfortunately, that list included this classmate who was from China.  She deleted me from her list of contacts.

I don’t blame her, or find anything to be offended about in this action.  I shouldn’t have sent the post to her.  It was harmful to her social credit score.  In her country, I would be blacklisted already for having unpopular political beliefs.

This begs the question of just what is a social credit score? The Chinese have instituted an official Social Credit system.  What does that mean?  How does a Social Credit system work?  Or more precisely, how does the Chinese Social Credit system work? To answer these questions fully, you first have to understand how much technology has taken over their lives, and in understanding this, realize how it can take over ours too.

The first part of this technology takeover came through something like Facebook; people posting about their lives to their friends and family, and the personality profile quizzes that are oh so cleverly sent through it with all these little news feeds. “You’re a genius…”  if you know these facts, and do your friends really know you?  What movies do you like?  What music do you like? What restaurants do you go to?  What commercials have you seen? The answers to these quizzes not only build a psychological profile of who you are, but also answer all the personal questions that you might use for your security questions to reset your passwords. You do not know who has access to these things.  It turns out, that there are government agencies which have access to them.  It goes into your personal control file.

Building this up further, there’s the tracking of your purchases through the credit system.  That convenience of just asking for your list of purchases from your Credit card company to help you file your taxes comes with a steep price.  The credit card company transaction services, which are separate companies, can report to more than one master, or really, the Main master. They make money with no risk at all, and the employees make nice salaries. The reports of what is purchased and who is purchasing it go to many places.  Your personal life style is known, whether you want it known or not. We’ve all seen this show up in the form of ads that get sent to our phones and computers. This is also part of the decision making on how much you get charged interest for credit, or if you get credit at all.

Another piece of this technology takeover are the cameras.  Cameras in your phones, cameras in your computers, cameras at the traffic lights, security cameras on buildings, and in buildings, cameras in the parks, cameras at resorts, cameras outside of entertainment facilities, cameras at political events, and cameras in the schools. All of these cameras recording every mover you make, and every interaction between you and another human. Does this information ever help you? Maybe sometimes, for proof in court cases, when it suits the government to let you use it.  If it doesn’t suit the government, they simply tell you that the cameras were turned off in that area at that time.

The latest piece of this technology takeover is the facial recognition software which knows who you are when it’s recording you.  And the newest software which purports to know when you are lying (if you aren’t a pathological liar). Let’s not forget the audio files.  They can record you wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing, if you are dragging your phone around with you, because those things can be turned on remotely by anyone with the knowledge of how to hack your wireless phone. Just think about it…. This technology knows when you are going to the bathroom, how often you go to the bathroom, and how long it takes to do it.   Now you combine this software into an AI system and it would figure out when you were a pathological liar, because it would be able to note when your actions did not match your words.

So, the technology exists to act as an individual life spy system. Someone got the bright idea (maybe as a result of studying the financial credit score, or people’s behavior when they get a Prius and try to maximize their gas mileage by adhering to the indicators of the most efficiency meters in their dash board) that if they assign values to everything we do, we could delineate the best kind of people and the worst kind of people (according to the desirability of a government).  We could tell people what their score was, and what kind of things result in a good score, and what kind of things result in a lowered score, and encourage people to behave in a more socially acceptable way.  “So what? What’s wrong with that?” you might ask.

In the first place, it’s a total invasion of individual privacy. Secondly, who gets to decide what is acceptable and what isn’t? Third, it would be one thing if the social credit score could flex and adjust to life changes, so at one time you might have a lower score, but later on you could build it back up to an acceptable level again; however, the Chinese have resorted to assigning some people to permanent black list status. No matter what you do, you will always be restricted.

That’s right. If you have a low score, the government decides that you have restrictions placed on you. In China, if your score drops too low, you can’t book a ride on a high-speed train, or travel to certain areas, or outside of your assigned area, or buy certain products, or live in certain places, or have access to some of the events going on… and the list of what can be allowed or restricted goes on and on. If you have landed on the wrong side of social acceptance, you get put on a black list. Once there, you can’t get off of it.

This method of social scoring will result in a new permanent underclass. Those on the blacklist will become, in all practicality, a slave society.   Those who naturally  behave in a manner which keeps their scores high, will move up, and even gain power.  This may not even be the same people that the traditional Han Chinese society believe should be in positions of power.  If this happens, it will present another challenge to the social structure.

Those who have a good enough score and are not always inclined to always doing what is socially acceptable; who want something that would lower their score, but don’t want to hurt their score, will simply ask (outside of range of their electronics) those who are already on the blacklist to procure it for them.  In this manner, they still get to do what it was they wanted to do, but it won’t show up in their social credit system.  It will create a bigger black market and more corruption, not less.

Last, but not least, some people who are doing well, but whom other members of society do not approve of having in charge of them, may even be forced into positions which would cause them to take a hit in their social scores.  Eventually, the corruption and the increased unhappiness resulting from this artificially imposed interference in the social structure will be the cause of a new revolution, instead of preventing it.

 

Ellen M Story, Ellen M. Lattz at emariaenterprises, llc. May 2018.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ellen M Story, Ellen M. Lattz at emariaenterprises, llc with appropriate, and specific direction to the original content.

Tell Me When It’s Safe to Go Out Again

 

Ten Reasons that the Earth is not Flat

 

I recently watched a video made more than six months ago by JayDreamerZ.  It is still very relevant in todays environment. The topic he discussed is a growing debate. During the presentation he challenged viewers of a different opinion to give him ten reasons why he should see things from their perspective.  He said that so  far, no one he had spoken to could do that/or would.  I am taking up that challenge.  I am not making fun of Jay, nor any of his viewers.  I realize that this new push has only recently become an issue, and I  have seen some of the videos that are making this argument. They are very well produced, and very convincing.  I’m not a scientist, so my reasons for still believing in a globular world are from more experiential evidence.

Reason number 1) the sky that is viewed from the southern hemisphere is radically different from the sky that is seen from the northern hemisphere. The sailors of old who learned to navigate this globe had to find a different stable guide to follow in order to have some sense of which direction they were going in. The southern cross pointed at the most stable place in the sky in the south. The big dipper points to a stable place in the sky in the north, (or it did before our magnetic north moved…. )   These stable locations are caused by the relative stability of the spin, which creates the axis of the world we live on.  Incidentally, that same spinning earth interacts with the cosmic rays of the sun to produce the ozone that we all depend on to help screen us from those same cosmic rays.

Reason number 2) When I drive across the United States on I-70 from the east to the west, I see the tops of the Rockies (Pikes Peak) rise above the horizon long before I see the foothills; the tops of those mountains are a lot further away than the foothills, and the foothills are not small. No argument that my sight of them is clouded by a mist from the earth will work here, especially since Colorado is a fairly dry state.

Reason number 3) When it’s summer in the southern hemisphere it is winter in our northern hemisphere, and vice, versa.  This is explained very nicely by the tilted spinning axis of our world. The demonstration of the simplified pictorial view that the world should face the wrong way on the other side of the world six months later does not defeat this logic.  There are entirely too many influences on the world by other outside magnetic forces (other planets) which would cause the worlds spin to slow down and make it come out exactly the way it is…..

Reason number 4) The world has been broken up (per Velikovsky, who I also read in my youth) and this breaking is still going on. I encourage you to look at Dutchsince on youtube. He is Not a professional geologist; but gives Very Cool earthquake coverage everyday with predictions you can actually track with him. I think you will enjoy his efforts that produce the work you’ll see in his videos.

Reason number 5) If the earth was shaped the way that it is being presented by the pushers of the flat earth, it would take much longer to get around the world from the outer circumference than it does to get around the world from the inner circumference… That doesn’t happen. If you go around the world on any of the same paralells, if you travel by air, the 30th parallel in the north,  and if you travel the same way on the 30th parallel in the south, it takes the same amount of time to get around the world and back to the same location you started from. That would not happen in the view of the flat earth that is being presented to you.

Reason number 6) As the disturbance from the entrance of Nibiru/Nemesis continues to affect us with it’s magnificent magnetic presence, it pulls on our spin and causes the movements within the world; which are manifesting in a huge increase in both volcanic and earthquake activity because it is moving the middle of the worlds spin into a new place. Centrifugal forces push the world to bulge outward where the new equator is located. (Look at the new upward push in the Gulf of Mexico). This is ongoing…. and it may continue to move, and change where it will end up.  In the meantime, the very wealthiest among us have been preparing for this day for a long time. They have known this was going to happen for the last fifty years so they prepared very luxurious underground bunkers for themselves to retreat into, leaving the rest of us in the dark. I’ll leave it up to you to do the research, as it is apparent you are very good at doing that. Dig deep.

Reason number 7)  Those who site the efforts of people to find the curve from the surface with lasers… sigh …. the round earth isn’t perfectly round… obviously.. If you point a laser up I-70 across Kansas, it will appear that you can do that seemingly forever. but Kansas rises in elevation from one side to the other. It is tilted up all the way toward the Rocky Mountain Massif. The earth has many different elevations from the sea level, which sea level itself isn’t stable, because of tides.

Reason number 8) The tidal forces that pulled from the moon’s pull…. whether you call it gravity or resonance, or magnetism, (may all have the same effect… essentially). This is apparent with the tides, and the water levels are not perfectly flat anywhere.. and at different times of day you will get different results. If the water were stable, it would curve downward in it’s sandy, rocky earthly vessels as it does in a glass of water.

Reason number 9) Although there is definitely a whole set of flat projections of the magnetically spinning galaxies, the parts within the spin are all round (ish), so are we, that is this earth is essentially rounded, though the water on the one side has got to be heavier;  if you have ever driven a truck with liquid in it (the big rigs) you would notice how the weight of the water sloshing around causes the motion of your truck to lurch from side to side…

Reason number 10) You are right about the “news” people who make fun of others with sneering condescension. That is the whole point of the money suddenly backing this push. The very places that you went to look this stuff up. Where did that come from? It didn’t exist before the last year. Where did the money come from that so very professionally produced those videos? They were put out there to produce this very division and intellectual schism. This is a professional set-up. And it’s working. Don’t let them get away with this. Is there new real science out there? Yes. Are there new answers to old questions? yes. Are we getting information out to people that should have been out to them Ages ago? yes. Don’t let the professional con-artists derail this effort by the insertion of this new piece of professionally presented twisted truth, and then laugh at us for falling for it. Don’t let their mis-use of real science once again push us off course.

Ellen M Story , Ellen M. Lattz at emariaenterprises, llc. May 2018.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ellen M Story, Ellen M. Lattz at emariaenterprises, llc with appropriate, and specific direction to the original content.

Pitying People to Death

If you are a heroine dealer, or a chemically derived opioid dealer, this is your wake up call. Get out of the opioid business. If you deal any form of opioid, you deal death, and it deserves to be dealt back to you.

Earlier this weekend I had the horrible, but apparently all too common experience of finding someone overdosing in a convenience store bathroom.  She was found sitting on the floor with her head laying up against the door of  the closet inside the only restroom in the store.  She was already cyanotic, turning blue around the mouth, and having great difficulty breathing.  The needle was broken off in her arm.

If someone else who came into the store had not had to go to the bathroom, we would not have found her in time.  Since the key was missing, we thought that someone may have left the key inside the restroom, since there had been no response to the knock on the door.  We used the other store key to get it open.  That’s when we found her, with her face mashed against the utility room door in all her sad glory. My shout for my other store associate drew the attention of the other customers.

Fortunately for this young woman, one of the of the other customers in the store at the time was an LPN who had been issued Narcan in case she ran across anyone in need.  Indeed, this tragic behavior is becoming so commonplace that it is even likely that there will be a need. The user of the drug was given two doses of Narcan before the ambulance  was able to get there. She was conscious when the emergency personnel came into the store and didn’t choose to go to the hospital. The emergency personnel did pull the broken needle out of her arm for her though.

Unfortunately for her, she is still addicted and is likely to do this again.  There were six other overdoses in the nearby apartments just the same morning.  That’s seven that we know of in a two block area.  911 was called for them as well. Narcan was administered and all survived, this time.

The antidote is administered freely, and there are no consequences at all for anyone involved. We pity the poor addicted users of these horrendous drugs and turn them all back loose, knowing full well that they will continue to abuse the drugs until they die of them.   In other words, we pity them to death. This response MUST end.   It is an utterly unworkable counter to a problem that is costing our society a whole generation of mostly young adults, and young parents.

A couple of generations ago, the foolish actions of youth might give one a solid scare, but only rarely took their lives. Now, the loss of life is all too frequent, and so too, the orphaning of their children. The cost of caring for these, our future generation, alone is overwhelming to our overburdened societal structure.  This cost is the least reprehensible and most tragic result of what has to be a deliberate flooding of the market with such a deadly addicting disease. If this were smallpox, we would mandate a cure for it immediately.  We are after all required to be vaccinated for far less deadly diseases than this one; Measles rarely kills it’s victims,  chicken pox almost never kills anyone, and I’ve never heard of anyone dying of chlamydia, but there’s a vaccine for it.

Since these much less deadly conditions are required by our government to be treated and nullified so as not to be a problem anymore; you would think that something as easily spread and ghastly addicting as opioids would get a far more aggressive approach to ridding our society of it.  The number of absent labor hours, the loss of productive spending on items with real value, the stolen property, the payouts for the police and emergency forces to respond to related issues, the costs of trials, and prison housing, and the children who grow up without their parents, or with them while having to live with the effects of the drug on them; these costs are egregious, and should be all the incentive we need, as a society, to understand that allowing the continuation of this evil among us is intolerable.

There should be every effort to take these suffering souls in to therapy and detoxification to rid them of any desire to take theses drugs again.  While in therapy, see to it that they are guided through any type of education necessary to assure that they have the skills necessary for real survival without the drugs in their lives.

As for those who conspire to produce and promote a drug almost purely for profit, without any thought of the effects it will have on the end user, or their families, or the society in which they operate? Yes, I’m talking about the pharmaceutical companies, and their shareholders as well; you all have a part in creating and maintaining this national nightmare. You have the costs of all this human destruction on your hands.

Once upon a time in the seventies, the elderly were using a simple solution for pain and arthritis called DMSO.  It worked well.  You could smell it on people. It smelled like a mixture of garlic and corn.   Mostly corn. Sometimes the elderly would also use almond oil when getting massages; then they would smell like almond and garlic and corn, but they felt good all over. It wasn’t expensive either, and it wasn’t necessarily dangerous, unless it was misused, but a set of instructions on the proper use of it could be issued so people wouldn’t hurt themselves or others.  Mix two parts pure DMSO with one part distilled water, spray or pat onto the affected area, and let dry.  Don’t mix it with any other ingredients.

DMSO is a naturally occurring substance found in the oceans, which is why when you go swimming in unpolluted ocean waters, you feel so good. It sinks straight through the skin.  It carries the minerals from the ocean waters into your system with it. DMSO is also a byproduct of the paper-making process, which is why it’s so easily available and inexpensive to purchase. If it could have been patented and it’s use restricted by the pharmaceutical companies, we would all be using it for relief of pain at highly exorbitant prices.

Since it couldn’t be patented, and it was getting popular for pain treatment, the pharmaceutical companies decided it had to be removed from the market.  The nineteen-seventies was the time that the pharmaceutical companies were beginning to manufacture an opioid derivative called Oxycontin, they wanted that arthritis market for themselves, and any other kind of pain market they could expand into.  So a concerted campaign was begun to remove DMSO from human usage. Of course they packaged their argument in neater language, and made it sound like it wasn’t really a conspiracy to deprive the public of a cheap, effective alternative treatment for pain, and inflammation.

It was almost removed from any kind of usage, but the horse industry, on which DMSO was used very effectively for the swollen ligaments of race horses, objected, and veterinarians objected because it worked so well for animals with arthritis. The use of DMSO was limited for use on damaged animal ligaments, and for animals in pain from arthritis. It can now be found in the horse liniment aisle of your local farm store.  Don’t tell the farm store people that you want to use it on yourself, that would get it pulled from their shelves and made unavailable for personally administered animal husbandry.  Tell them you want to try it for your dog, or your neighbors dog who suffers from arthritis.  Recently, there are new methods of using DMSO, such as topically applied gels, etc.  that are available over the internet. I am not familiar with them, and do not know what they are mixed with. Anything DMSO is mixed with will go through your skin into your circulatory system.  Do some research before you apply any product.

It should be understood that the pharmaceutical industry isn’t all by itself in this campaign to remove competition.  The pharmaceutical companies are derivatives of the big oil companies. You see, synthetic drugs are often created from oil derivatives, so it behooves the oil companies to spend money influencing decisions that affect their down-line profit sectors.

While we are on the subject of related financially influenced support;  our congressmen and women who make the laws are not subject to the same insider trading rules that the rest of us are subject to. They decide what laws will be applied or are going to be applied, and know ahead of time how those laws will affect the stock price of any given industry.  They often invest in those stocks that the laws they are about to pass affect.  It does help explain how some of our congressmen and women got so rich while in office.   Look at their voting records.  Many (but not all) of our elected officials are also guilty co-conspirators in this suppression of simple, effective remedies for pain, and other natural effective treatments.  In that, they are also complicit in the deaths of all these individuals over dosing on opioids, legally prescribed or not.

As an additional means of re-enforcing their profit margins, our lawmakers instituted the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), which determines which drugs or applications for treating health are allowed support, and which will be suppressed.  The DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency), is the strong arm enforcement controlling the sale of illicit drugs, and going after anyone who dares to defy the officially sanctioned line of available narcotics. Woe to anyone who gets in the way of the Holy God of Profits. We are all required to bow down before the edicts of  the pharmaceutical industry’s desires.

The Physician’s industry instituted the AMA (American Medical Association) which purports to License physicians, without whose approval no doctor is allowed to practice (they can be sued for practicing medicine without a license, even though they are very well trained).  The nutritional avenue of health has been downplayed and subverted in favor of encouraging people to take a  medically prescribed and controlled treatment for every ailment that comes about from malnutrition.  There are a whole host of symptoms that can be expensively countered, but never cured, by the chemically derived drugs of the pharmaceutical industry.

To make matters worse,  the big agricultural enterprises,  backed by the USDA, who are now also subsidiaries of some of the largest oil companies are contributing to this nutritional disaster by encouraging the use of Glyphosates as pest control, and discouraging traditional farm practices. The biggest agricultural research firms are further exacerbating the destruction of our bodies natural  ability to heal itself by adding, splicing in other material, and subtracting bits and pieces of the plant DNA in ways that appear to be beneficial, because we get so much more product, but which, in reality have many negative effects on those who eat the genetically modified outcome.  There are better, natural ways to increase plant yield.

So what does all of that have to do with illegal opioid narcotics?  Just look at the sheer volume of it.  It’s being manufactured somewhere, and distributed all over our streets. Opioid derivatives were overprescribed for any complaint of pain.  As opioids do, they caused addictions in the people it was prescribed to, but as most pharmaceuticals are, it was also expensive.  Suddenly, after a couple of decades of less popularity (think Janice Joplins death from a heroin overdose) there is a whole lot of heroin and other opioid derivatives flooding the streets.  This product didn’t get out there all by itself.  It was brought here. It’s both dangerous and expensive to get that much product onto the streets.  It’s pretty obvious when you think about it. This community death dealer has big money and heavy hitting power backers behind it.

This is where the Narcan comes in, which is also a pharmaceutical product.  After all the damage is done now the sympathy for the poor addicted souls naturally gets the people to accept the cost of this government provided band-aid solution.  It doesn’t cure anything, but it does increase and prolong the profits back to the pharmaceutical companies.

Does my objection to this mean that I don’t want the Narcan to be used to save these lives? No. It means that the Narcan should be the first step, not the only step, to first saving and then turning people’s lives around. Without the removal of the addiction, administering the anti-dote won’t do much good.  The pharmaceutical companies need to finance the whole solution.  As for the dealers, the street traffickers, the mules, and indeed the actual manufacturers of this deadly epidemic, I offer the following thoughts on what could be done to correct this course:

1. The leaders who have contributed to this profit making  snake oil approach to medicine should be tried for crimes against humanity. All their assets and income should be seized and used to help correct the problem which their unethical, with total disregard for the actual human costs profit plotting created.
2. The pharmaceutical companies should all be nationalized and turned into non-profit organizations dedicated not only to saving lives, but to using all the income from the sale of what few really good products they have for: correcting their past mistakes, financing the raising of all these orphans, supplementing any income necessary to get the surviving victims off of opioid addiction, and provide financial support for training in real nutrition, gardening, animal husbandry, and other seriously life sustaining activities.
3. The up-line oil companies should be required to send a letter of apology to each and every surviving family member affected by the lack of oversight contributing to the unethical behavior of their down-line companies.
4. Congressmen and women who profited from pharmaceutical companies who make opioid products stocks, making laws which allowed pharmaceutical companies not only a free hand in pursuit of profits, but a nefarious hand as well,  should not only step down, but also be required to apologize to their constituents in a public forum.  Since the companies are nationalized, their stocks won’t be worth anything anymore; they lose their investment.
5. The FDA needs to be shut down.
6. If the DEA can’t do a better job of preventing these deadly drugs from getting to the streets, they should be disbanded too.
7. Legalize Marijuana so the sale of it is not done through the same dealers. Relatively harmless products should not be prosecuted the same way as deadly ones.  As is plainly evident, heroine, and opioid derivatives are deadly in addiction.
8. Catch the dealers, and traffickers of opioids/heroine/fentanyl, etc. and after a speedy but fair trial, if found guilty, hang them. Death to dealers! should become a new national motto.  If the dealers know that they will not get away with this crime, perhaps they will feel more inclined to give up the names of those who set them up in the business, so they aren’t the only one to pay for this perfidy with their lives. Anyone found guilty of facilitating the sale of these deadly addictive drugs on the streets, or of over prescribing them for use outside of a hospital should be up for consideration in the hangings.

Nationally, we are uncomfortable with hanging, as we should be. This is a form of execution with overlapping resonances in many other areas. I suggest this precisely because it has so much resonance.  I suggest this in the hope that the idea of being hung will echo in the hearts of anyone contemplating selling this dreadful drug.  The seller knows full well that the drug is addicting from the beginning, that the use of it will destroy not only the life of the user, but the lives of those around the user as well; furthermore, the seller knows that the end result is almost always a life ending permanent overdose, yet they are still willing to pull someone into this death spiral.

Are there some who have managed to escape the use of these drugs?  Yes, and bravo to them, and to those who help them to escape it.  Perhaps the idea of getting hung if they sell to others in order to obtain more for themselves will encourage more people to find the strength and courage to get off heroin.  This national opioid addiction has to stop before it becomes our national end.

 

 

Ellen M Story , Ellen M. Lattz at emariaenterprises, llc. May 2018.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ellen M Story, Ellen M. Lattz at emariaenterprises, llc with appropriate, and specific direction to the original content.

The Pole Star

Hello again. It’s been a little while and a lot of things have happened since I was on here last.  I finished my course work at the University of Louisville (I still have to finish paying for it, but that is coming soon).  I had a show in the Hite Art Galleries, and took it back down. Graduation will come and go, and now I’m looking for additional work, both to live on, and to finish paying for school, and to start paying for the student loans I took out while in school. While I was searching for types of work I also discovered that there is a whole new push for people to believe that the earth is flat.  Where did this come from? Definitely not from my science classes.

I cannot tell you how taken aback this makes me…..  Well, if you aren’t one of the people already pushing this new theory, it probably makes you feel that way too. So, I’ve looked at a whole lot of videos, and I’ve examined what I know from my own experience, and I’ve looked at several different types of science expansions on the knowledge I already had.

We’ve already seen there is plenty of information out there that isn’t a true reflection of reality.  Some of it is very well produced.  It looks and sounds legitimate.  We’ve all been subjected to news in the past that was not a true reflection of what actually happened…. so it’s fairly obvious that someone, maybe a lot of someone’s are making stuff up; lying very professionally, making things appear to be true through backing by verified authorities and verified science.  So now the job is to sift out what is real from what isn’t real.

What makes this so very difficult, is that there is some truth in all of it.  Don’t the best lies have to have a foundation of truth to be believed?  It only takes a twist and an extension along the lines of the twist to move us along to something that is patently false, but because of the foundation of truth, the association with something we know to be real and have experienced as valid, we swallow the rest of the narrative. We end up embracing a fairy tale.  We end up accepting the lies that we are told, and giving authority to someone who doesn’t deserve out trust, or our respect, because he or she is lying to us. The originator of the lie Knows where the truth is and where the lie begins.

To make this worse, once a few people that we have experienced as being valid and truthful, have been convinced of the lie, the weight of their belief moves us further in the direction of believing it too, even if we had some doubts. Even if our experience doesn’t jive with what we are being told. We end up believing what we are told to believe, and not what we see and feel to be right.

So to let you know, I do NOT believe that the earth is flat.  I do believe that there is a very professional set of characters who have created a whole lot of valid looking scenarios that they claim we should believe makes their claims real.  I believe we are being set up.

All the advances of the past five hundred years have been because we finally got off the flat earth belief and got Back to the knowledge of a Round earth.  Our ability to communicate over distances is because we believed in a round earth, and were no longer afraid we would fall off of it when we sailed away from the sight of our shores. Our ability to navigate by the stars is because we have a round earth, and their paths are then more fixed and predictable. Especially the pole star.  That star which is positioned where the apex of our tilted axis points, and therefor does not appear to dance around the globe with our movement, but sits still, because the spin around that point isn’t wide enough to cause it to appear to shift.

That point and magnetism (which is also fed and caused by the spinning of our globe and the interaction of that spin with the rays of the sun, which together create a magnetic dynamo effect, and incidentally produce ozone) allowed sailors to navigate by a compass which pointed to a magnetic north.  When sailors move their ships past the equator, the skies they are looking at  become different, and the pole stars they steer by are also different. their compass them points in the other direction. A sailor of old had to know two different sets of stars to successfully navigate the whole world. If your world were flat, there wouldn’t be a southern cross that stayed at a fixed location to steer by in the southern hemisphere.

Don’t let the wealthy con-artists of the world fool you into believing in their fairy tale. They are only spending their money on this effort because they plan on using this new falsehood to enslave you further, and secure power for themselves.

 

Ellen M Story , Ellen M. Lattz at emariaenterprises, llc. May 2018.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ellen M Story, Ellen M. Lattz at emariaenterprises, llc with appropriate, and specific direction to the original content.

On the Subject of Birthdays

Hi Emily.  Happy belated birthday wishes to you. Yes, I know this is two days after your birthday…..  I didn’t forget it….. I just have other issues. Sorry.  I know, I’m a terrible Mother.

The first issue is that although I have your birthday stuff in my car, and the kids Easter stuff as well, and the boxes to pack them into, and the tape to seal them with, I haven’t had the money for the postage….  I would have had, but it keeps getting sucked out in over charge fees at the bank….  I don’t know why Naomi and I can’t coordinate this better…  It might be because there is so little actual communication between us, or it could be because I’m the only one with a job….Oh well….sigh……second month in a row.

The second issue was that my phone was dead on Wednesday, and I plugged it into the car to get it some charged up before I went to school, but it wasn’t charged enough by the time I got there, so I put my keys back into the ignition and turned the car on while I sat for a while…..  then, because it was still early Your time, I gathered my stuff together, and went to class…. (did you guess yet that I left the keys in the ignition? because I didn’t until I got back out there later that afternoon).

The third issue was school, and having a paper due, and getting my stuff together for the final critique in printmaking next week (I finished my body sized print today).

The fourth issue was getting to work on time (which I didn’t because my keys were locked in the car, (and calling the insurance company’s road side assistance used up the rest of my phone charge, again). So, though I had the time then to call you, I didn’t have the phone charge (again).

Then I got to work (finally, after getting back into the car, and getting it jumped, because the key was not only In the ignition, but also turned to On).  I did remember that it was your birthday, but I was at work, and I had a dead phone…. When I got off work after midnight… It was late, and my phone was still dead.  I got home and plugged it in… and fell asleep waiting for it to charge up again….

So.. then I was into the next day already.  I hope you had a great birthday anyway, and survived your night out. 😉

So, because I’m a terrible Mother, I’m going to write a “Make-up for being a shitty Mother” poem Just for you.  It won’t be for my Creative writing class, for which I need another two poems by tomorrow; he will get two Other poems for that workshop.  This one will be Just Yours. You can see it in the other blog TheMusicOfPoetry.wordpress.com.  Love you much

Mom

 

Credit Due

I am in my last Semester of the BFA program I embarked on back in 2014. Some of my Art work will be displayed in the Hite Art Institute’s galleries Beginning on April 5th, and running through the 20th of the month. As is the case with most students in their last year, I’m quite ready to leave this space of learning and explore doing things on my own now. I have had some excellent instructors here, and I would like to give credit where it is due.

My Printmaking instructor, Rachel Singel, had faith in me with very short notice for the creation of a Body of Work for the BFA review. Kudo’s to her.

In order to complete the program here, I was also required to add some more classes in English and humanities and science.  I’ve loved them all. Some of them got less of my attention than they deserved simply because I didn’t have the time, or the presence of mind in some cases, to give it to them while I was in them.  Some of these subjects will get revisited again after I am out on my own.  I hope I will find some time to expand on what was begun. Kudo’s to the Professors who patiently led us through what were very deep subjects, with well  prepared lesson plans and a strong background in them.  Thank you for your dedication.

In the end, I finally took a creative writing course. I don’t know why I hadn’t had one of these before, but I’m loving it.  Maybe it’s good that it has come last. It frees me for exploration in ways that I might not have had if I had crammed it into the middle of everything else. Kudo’s to this instructor too.

Ian Stansel is very patient with all of us; and I give much credit to his prodding and encouragement.  His suggestions for improvement, and his pointing out of deficiencies prompt another look at what, in my self-satisfaction, I miss.  The obviousness of missing information, which, when I was a technical writer, I was all too aware of, and watched out for, because the end user Needs All the steps (it is Not intuitive) jumps out at him, but not so much at me, because I have all the references to it in my head.  I will expand on the subjects to make them clearer. I will remember that the reader is not the writer, and needs more of the background for the subject.

Thank you all for giving me a stronger preparation for launching myself into the world. Thank you for your assistance in becoming a stronger individual.

 

Ellen M Story , Ellen M. Lattz at emariaenterprises, llc. May 2016.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ellen M Story, Ellen M. Lattz at emariaenterprises, llc with appropriate, and specific direction to the original content.

 

 

 

Pipelines in publishing

Who are you, really???

I purchased an apple laptop for school, and I have been gradually learning how to use it.  I have both Google Chrome and Safari on it as browsers. At school, on their computers, I generally use Google Chrome, because it usually works better.  They aren’t apple computers in their library.  I have gmail, and yahoo and an apple email now.   The plethora of passwords  is a little much. I tend to forget what they are after not too long. I had it down for a little while, but then someone hacked my stuff, and I had to change all my passwords.  Now, I’m frequently in a bind as to which one I need to remember.  It’s horrible.  Until recently, I thought that was my only problem.

It hasn’t been an issue before, but I’ve just discovered that I can only get on the wordpress site when I’m in the google search engine. I can’t even get into it when I’m in my gmail, if I’m not in gmail on Google Chrome. I get told that I don’t have a site yet when I try to get into it. On the other hand, when I’m in my gmail on Google chrome, it goes straight into the wordpress site when I click on any of my articles that I have sent to my gmail. No problem at all.

I’ve just purchased a web site for my new artistic profession, which I am still in the process of setting up.  I was in a different browser when I searched for it, and I set it up with my Apple icloud email.  If I’m in Google Chrome, It can’t find the site at all.  Now, not only do I have to remember which password goes with which email, etc., but I also have to remember which browser goes with which site.  This is becoming depressingly frustrating. I need a big chart on the wall with all my internet traffic lanes.
None of this would have become an issue at all, if it wasn’t for all the censorship of sites that I liked, like the naturopathy and how to raise farm animals that I love.  I have to go to Goodgopher.com to find them. Additionally, the selling of all my data to just anyone who wants it has begun to bother me too.  It doesn’t matter that I’m a law-abiding citizen, and that I have nothing to hide. It matters that anytime I search for anything, for whatever reason, ie, someone asked me a question that I didn’t know the answer to, so I searched it, I then get advertising for products related to that search, whether I’m interested in it or not.

Apparently, whoever has my data believes it applies to me, so they are working on selling me something. This potentially gives a false picture of me, in my opinion. I even heard that if you purchase something at a convenience store, with one of those points cards, that it will send, or sell the data to companies that use it to determine insurance rates; for instance, cigarettes.  If you are a non-smoker, but you have friends or family visiting that do smoke, and you buy them cigarettes with your points card, the data can go to the health insurance company and they will assume it’s you who smokes and raise your insurance rate.

Since this is true of points cards, then who is to say it isn’t also true of the data collected by browser searches? Or just plain any kind of typing that is done within one. These blog sites also collect data.  So now that I am switching sites to locate things of interest to me, I now have multiple pipelines of data.  Perhaps some of the sites, or browsers, or search engines don’t track everything I do, but I still have things of interest to me in the other locations, like this one.  What to do, what to do….  It’s disturbing, really.  Is this the price we pay for having these tools at our disposal?

Hmmmmmm……. Do I need to have multiple sites to sell my artistic wares? Depending on which site I’m on, will I get different results?  Will I get the interest of different kinds of people on each browser? Up until recently, I had taken it for granted that searches would have similar results, no matter where I was; now, I’m certain that I need different strategies for each browser, and different sites for them too.   ….  Sigh …….

I think I’m more interested in a smaller, more personal venue after all.  I doubt that I will bother with getting anymore internet sites.  This is far too time consuming and troublesome for doing the kind of personal, one-on-one custom artistic business I’m interested in.  I’ll be looking for a brick and mortar corner studio/shop when I get settled again after school.  Thanks internet, for clarifying that question for me.

Copyright 2018 Ellen M. Lattz.

Idealism

That state of mind which demands that things be the way we believe they should be, regardless of the feelings or circumstances of others.  Two year olds are idealists.  When they don’t get their way, they throw temper tantrums.  When a mature adult sees this, they understand that what they are witnessing is an immature mindset, lacking understanding of what is good for it, what is possible, and even more, the proper way to convince someone that what you want is what should be provided.

The current leader of our country has been accused of being a big baby, as though it were he who was throwing temper tantrums. While his style of speech may be bombastic, it is hardly taking place in the realm of temper tantrum.  Theodore Roosevelt was also known for being bombastic, yet I’ve seen no disparaging remarks about him or his Presidency in comparison to this President.

On the other hand, I’ve seen lots of images and videos of full grown persons having screaming fits in public since this election occurred. It’s as though they had never in their lives experienced being told no, you can’t always get what you want, no matter how much you think you should have it.  Of course, they had been being promised that what they thought they wanted was guaranteed to happen.

Perhaps it’s a little bit understandable under those circumstances, but still, it’s been a whole year, and people are still behaving as though they never learned how to take turns.  Remember that nice book, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten“? It’s like that. There are other priorities that have taken precedence at the moment.  Wait a bit, watch what happens and if things don’t get better, then it will be your turn.

On the other hand, if things do get better, maybe it’s not as bad as you were told it was going to be. Perhaps the people in charge aren’t heinous atrocities. Perhaps they are actually real human beings with a different sense of style. Perhaps we should stop passing judgement before they’ve done anything to have judgement passed on them for. I think that attitude is called prejudice.  Perhaps you’ve heard of it?

Inspirational Reads:

On Respect by A Frank Angle

© Ellen M Lattz and emariaenterprises, llc 2016.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author, Ellen M. Lattz, and/or blog owner, is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ellen M. Lattz, and emariaenterprises with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

 

 

Oh the Flowering Trees

Hooray! It’s spring again!  The lovely flowering trees dot the landscape, brightening the days as much as the additional sunshine does.  We bask in the glorious new colors, budding leaves, and the vibrancy of renewed life bursting onto the scene.  Everyday a new surprise as urgent new life unfolds overnight.  Sure, there are the inevitable pollen issues, as our eyes water, and our noses run, but heck, all those beautiful flowers are more than worth it.  When we can see through our swollen eyelids, they’re gorgeous. Plus, let’s not forget, those flowers on those fruit trees mean fruit! Right?

Oh.  Maybe not.  After all, most of those fruit trees in everyone’s front yards are all about the flowers, and don’t actually produce fruit. How sad is that? We get the watery eyes, and runny noses, but no satisfaction of the fruit itself.

I have a proposition for you.  What if everyone who has a flowering fruit tree that doesn’t produce fruit chop it down right after the flowering is over, and cut it up for barbecue smoking wood.  Fruitwood smoked barbecue is delicious! Then, replace the non-fruiting tree with two fruiting trees.  A pair of your favorite type of fruit, or your second favorite type, depending on your yard conditions.  After all, you shouldn’t put cherry trees into places that are mostly wet, because they don’t like getting their feet wet (apple trees love wet yards).  Most fruit trees need a pollinator to give you the fruit you like (plums, pears, apples); unless it’s a self-pollinator.  You can check with a nursery about what types they have in stock, and whether the one’s you want need a partner or not.

I purchased a self-pollinating apricot tree, and a purple fig tree this year.  I have some confidence that both of them can survive this Ohio valley climate, because I saw a full grown fig tree surviving in the mountains of West Virginia a couple of years ago. I just want to plant them somewhere that is a little protected with good southern sun exposure.

I need to find a partner tree for my apple tree that I planted last year.  I bought a scraggly looking apple tree on clearance last year, because I felt sorry for it.  Half of it’s root ball was completely exposed and it was suffering.  I planted it last fall and it survived the winter. It’s putting out new leaves this spring. Yeah!  Now I need to go find it a partner.  It would be joyous to see it producing fruit.

There are a lot of what look like fruit trees in the neighborhood.  They produce lots of flowers in the spring, but I’ve been here for a couple of years now, and they don’t produce any fruit.  I’m going to cut down the non-fruiting trees that are in my property area, and replace them with real fruit trees.  Even if I don’t do the whole farming-pruning-fumigation thing to keep the worms out of the developing fruit, at least they’ll produce fruit for the birds and squirrels, and the bees.

Did you know that bees can use the rotting fruit on the ground to feed on?  Those overripe fruits are producing sugars that the bees can use to make more honey.  Since our yards have so frequently stopped producing fruit, the bees have lost a source of late season sustenance.  Putting real fruit trees back into our yards would add valuable resources to help save our bees. And taking the non-fruiting wood to use for barbecue…  delicious!  I’m going to enjoy that fruit wood smoked flavor this fall.

…we see through a glass darkly…

Sometimes, when I am enjoying an announcement, in an article on the internet, of further growth in my church, there comes a comment from one who would throw cold water on my enjoyment.  There are some dedicated individuals, who desire to bring down this House of God (I know, such a dramatic statement). I could view this activity in a discouraging light, if I didn’t fully realize that the fact of their persistent existence is a testament in itself, to the truthfulness, and importance of this organization.

“How so!” you ask? I would answer you thus; Because, if this organization were not important, no one would bother for so long, and with such vehemence, to persist in trying to destroy it.  The Church would simply be laughed off, momentarily, and then ignored. Additionally, if it were not true, it would not have survived for so long, let alone, grown to it’s current size, without ever being a political tool of a sovereign nation, as the Catholic church, or the religion of Islam became. Both of those churches used politics, and forced conversion to grow their numbers.  The religion of Islam, even currently, uses force and the politics of nation states, to grow their religion.

But the size and age of this religion is still not enough to provide a full testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That requires personal study, and thought, and personal prayer, to discover for oneself, whether or not it is worth believing in. The personal study will come through reading, or listening to others read (such as on tapes or cd’s) the scriptures. Both the Holy Bible, and the Book of Mormon, which are companion volumes in testimony of the existence, and divinity of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of all of us, for the sins of the world.

As to one of the questions currently being raised by these individuals, I’ll give some space for an answer here.  One accusation, and question being raised, has to do with a story book that was supposedly written prior to the translation of the Book of Mormon.  The accusation being leveled is about a similarity between a short story book and the Book of Mormon.  According to the theory being proposed, Joseph would have had access to this story book, and simply made up the Book of Mormon, based on this short story book.

So, to address the questions raised here… If one has read the accounts of the translating of the Book of Mormon, one realizes that a short, 116 page section, which was a condensed version of the whole book, was given to someone who was learned, to provide corroborative proof to this gentleman, that there was a book of plates being translated.  This gentleman, to whom the condensed version was given, promptly lost them, or hid them, and claimed not to have received them at all.

Joseph was devastated that his trust was betrayed, but even more devastated that he had himself betrayed a trust, as he had been instructed Not to share those pages, and had done it anyway.  After the loss, he was further instructed not to retranslate them, as the lost pages would be used against him and the restoration of the gospel.

Now, some of you know that I am currently enrolled in school again.  I am a student at the University of Louisville, in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A.  I am studying fine art, as a studio artist.  One of my areas of study has been in printmaking.  As you might be aware, printing presses of old made use of moveable type.  You set up the letters in trays (backwards) and ran pages, with ink over them, to create printed pages.  You could make any kind of written words, and images that could be duplicated, including printing dates. They could be anything you could set the type to reflect, even if it wasn’t accurate (much like things on the internet today).

So, if a person had a condensed version of a book coming out, someone could, if they so chose, create another story, based on that condensed version, and set a type-set date previous to the date of the creation of the full version of the book, thus making it seem as though the person who was creating the full version had stolen their idea from someone else.  Why does this sound so particularly plausible? Oh, because this sort of thing still happens today, all the time; Copy right laws, notwithstanding.

So, even if the story that someone is touting actually exists, which I wonder about, due to stories of that nature being printed on wood pulp, and not surviving to this day and age, due to acid, and browning, and cracking up into little tiny fragments…   No, I don’t believe the story of the story that someone is pushing on the internet, as a plausible reason for denying the testimony I have received, of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and the Divinity of Jesus Christ.  He exists, and still teaches us today, if we will ask in faith, and Listen to his response.

Gary Johnson, the Charlie Brown of this Electoral Season.

Of the candidates currently running, Gary Johnson reminds me the most, of Charlie Brown.  He’s a good guy.  I know, that’s hard to fathom in this day and age, but they do still exist occasionally.  What’s more important at the moment, is that Gary Johnson is a valid political candidate running for President, and his presence in the polls is on the rise.  He’s the Libertarian party candidate, which means he believes in smaller government, fewer regulations and restrictions on business, or in your personal lives, and a more autonomous citizenry.  Under this type of government, creativity and invention flourish. Businesses are started, and grow. Work becomes available for more people, and productivity increases. People are happier, because they have the freedom to indulge themselves in speculative efforts; which sometimes pay off quite well.

Now, I know that we have two, very powerful, candidates running under different party banners.  It might seem impossible to dream of having such a good guy candidate actually win, but there is a scenario in which it might happen.  If the other two candidates cancel each others’s electoral college votes out, somewhat, so that neither of them have enough, if Gary can win a state, and pull just enough votes to keep either of them from winning flat out, then the decision goes to the Hill.  It would be something like what happened when Nixon Resigned, and his Vice President was already impeached.  Our congressmen and women made the decision who would be the President until the elections happened.  That’s how Gerald Ford became President after Nixon.  So Maybe, the congress wouldn’t like either of the two powerful candidates enough and would choose Gary.

Maybe that’s what his campaign rallying cry should be. Choose Gary.

 

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author, Ellen M. Lattz, and/or blog owner, is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ellen M. Lattz, and emariaenterprises with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Related Links:

Hillary Clinton’s Health

Why Donald Trump is Smarter than Joe Scarborough

New Wikileaks news about election interference

Fixing the Medicaid Nightmare

 

Guccifer 2.0 hacked DCCC

This is a reblog, obviously.  I didn’t write this, but it’s good to know who is taking credit for the DNC hack.  That would be whoever Guccifer is….. and this entity has posted pictures of documents that were hacked from their emails as well. Apparently, they don’t have any better security on their email servers than Hillary did on hers…   I guess just about anyone with some hacker savvy could get into them.

Hi all! It’s time for new revelations now. All of you may have heard about the DCCC hack. As you see I wasn’t wasting my time! It was even easier than in the case of the DNC breach. As …

Source: Guccifer 2.0 hacked DCCC

Five Graces

I have five beautiful daughters.  Each is their own type of beautiful; no two really alike, though there are similarities among them.  None of them realize just how much they mean to me, individual…

Source: Five Graces

Five Graces

I have five beautiful daughters.  Each is their own type of beautiful; no two really alike, though there are similarities among them.  None of them realize just how much they mean to me, individually, or collectively. All of them are strong women, each handling difficult situations in their own way, and facing challenges and obstacles with determination and perseverance. The learning curves are steep for all of them, as the examples they had to model themselves on weren’t very good (Yes, I’m talking about myself and their fathers). Though each had their own advantages as well, whether they recognize them, or not.

I had my own challenges and obstacles to overcome. I’m still dealing with the fall out from a chaotic child hood, where, yes, sometimes bad things happened, but there was good in it, as well.  The tough part is sorting out the chaff from the grain.  Unfortunately, my daughters were born in the middle of that sorting process. After many years, I finally learned to let go of anger at my parents for not being perfect, but not before my daughters were already grown.  I realized, at long last, that each of my parents did as well as they were able, with what they understood.  Sometimes that grieves me, but I accept that they are who they are.  I hope, that someday my daughters can do the same for me.

Our individual levels of what we understand to be good, vary widely.  The material we are made of, how we respond to our various stimuli, sets the boundaries that we work within, with the gifts  we are given upon entrance to this world, and the experiences we collect traveling through it. I hope I live up to my best potential; although, sometimes I fear that sloth will be the finish of my dreams.  Or maybe it’s my frequent low energy levels that keep me from accomplishing my goals, though I doubt it.

Some of my goals don’t require a lot of energy, they just need me to get started on them.  Once I begin a painting, there is usually no problem finishing it.  I just have trouble getting started on stretching a new canvas, and applying the first dab of paint to it. Being in school again, helps me with some of that.  Where there is a requirement, I tend to follow through.  I just need to get myself to believe I have a requirement to get my own ideas onto canvas, or translated into real pieces, so all those things I want to show my daughters, and the world, will exist in a dimensional reality, and not just in my head.

I hope that my daughters find it easier to get started on their dreams, and aren’t afraid to find out how they’ll turn out.  I hope each of my daughters have their own dreams, and hopes.  Ultimately, I dream we will all get to know each other better, and be able to appreciate the grace that is in each other.

Thanks to The “Three Graces” rock formation at the Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs, Colo.trekearth.com, and the image of The Pleiades, from bing images.

Other Sites:

The Music of Poetry

Defining Values for Politics

© Ellen M Lattz and emariaenterprises, llc 2016.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author, Ellen M. Lattz, and/or blog owner, is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ellen M. Lattz, and emariaenterprises with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

New Tech Frustration

I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets frustrated with technology.  Yes, it’s wonderful, what it can do for us, but it’s also endlessly complicating.  The old joke about not being able to program the VCR, is now multiplied a hundredfold, with each new piece of digital equipment; even with each new version of an old program. The old, non-programmable electronics were more than enough to have to learn all the bits and pieces of.  Each one unique.  Each one functional.

This digital age, with so many programmable, and re-programmable artifacts, is astounding in it’s endless variety.  It is also endlessly frustrating in the many ways to do the programming, the editing, the setting up, and the searching for, Wrong.

Maybe some of you never have this problem.  You instinctively know how to stroke the keys/touch screen for each new application.  After all, it’s intuitive!   Or not.   Hmmmm…perhaps, this instinct mostly applies to programmers….  or millennials  😉

Like learning English, if you grow up with it, it seems to come naturally, but if you are learning it after the fact, say, as a second language….  it’s complicated.  I frequently end up doing things the same ‘old’ way, simply because I don’t understand the function of the new bits and pieces; how they are applied, or where they need to be used. There aren’t enough instructions, and if there were, they wouldn’t be clearly enough written, since the writers of the instructions frequently assume you already know all the ‘basics’.

I’ve been a technical writer.  I understand all too clearly, where the failures in an instruction manual are, and why they happen.  Often times, a company has the engineers write up the instructions, and then just slaps it into a book , or booklet, that way.  This leaves anyone who isn’t an engineer on the short end of understanding.

The first reason for a lack of understanding, is because engineers have their own language to speak in, and they write the instructions in that language. The second reason, and this is the worst error, is because engineers already understand all the ‘basics’, therefor, they assume everyone else will too.  So many steps get left out of the instructions because of that misunderstanding. And finally, the third reason instructions aren’t understood, even if they get written clearly, is because no one wants to read them anyway.  There’s just too much time consumed in all that extra reading, for every new little thing that comes along. Hence, the only ones who understand all this new technology, are the millennials, who grew up with it, like growing up with English, or Cantonese, or Russian.

In sum, I enjoy oil painting because I understand it. It’s  simple, basic, and in its own way, endlessly editable.  Painting with a digital piece of equipment?  Hmmmm….. I have seen some very beautiful works of art produced digitally, but I think I’ll pass on learning the techniques, simply because I don’t enjoy the frustration that goes along with having to ask, “How does this work?” for every little part of every little (or huge) new program.  Even the (bless the person who invented word processing) writing programs are frustrating enough.  Each new change, designed to make life easier, produces new anxiety in me.  Something else to learn. Something else to understand.  My curiosity just doesn’t want to go there anymore.

 

 

Other links you might like:

Defining Values

https://bayart.org/2016/07/25/speak-kind-to-yourself/

The Music of Poetry

© Ellen M Lattz and emariaenterprises, llc 2016.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author, Ellen M. Lattz, and/or blog owner, is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ellen M. Lattz, and emariaenterprises with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Fried Eggs

The title of this post is a bit tongue in cheek.  This  post is really about the weather, or the effects the weather is having on my brain, or both.  You remember that commercial about drugs, and what your brain looks like on drugs?  Well, it turns out that the weather can have the same effect on your brain as a harsh chemical.  There are definitely days when my brain feels like it is frying. Of course, that may be owing to my part-time job.

I currently work as a seasonal employee at Lowe’s, in their outdoor lawn and garden section.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about the work; I love this job.  In fact, I love working with the plants so much, that I went back three times to apply for the position, until I finally got hired on.  The fact that I love the job, does not negate the fact that, on hot, sunny days, my brain sometimes feels like it’s frying. It helps some, that there are hats to wear, and I usually have a watering hose in my hands, that frequently leaks, and keeps me cooled off some on the outside.

Even so, I get so involved in watering and cleaning up the plants and flowers, that I sometimes forget to take a break.  Even with all the water in the air, and on my cloths, I still get dehydrated when I forget to take a break.  It’s this sneaky dehydration, from sweating out the liquids and minerals, even though there is a cooling flow of leaky water, that puts my brain in jeopardy, and makes me feel like my head is on fire. But I have experience in the military, and am good at monitoring my own vital signs.  I do remember to take a break, when dehydration symptoms start showing up.  Perhaps it is this which keeps me from a visit to the emergency room, as so many others this summer have found themselves doing.

For instance, my youngest daughter came down with a summer cold, and somehow, it turned into bronchial spasms, just prior to becoming bronchitis.  My youngest daughter is 21 years old, and has never had bronchial spasms before, in her life.  None of my daughters, to my knowledge, have ever had bronchial spasms before. This health malady was a new experience for both of us.  Because the health card was not currently working (that’s another story), we ended up being sent to the hospital emergency room.

On the way to the emergency room, we ended up on a crowded bridge where the traffic wasn’t moving very fast.  My car, this summer, is without air-conditioning.  The lack of speedy forward motion prevented us from getting a good flow of air through the car windows, and it got pretty warm. The warmth and humidity in the air was exacerbating my daughters condition.  She told me she felt like she had a tight collar around her throat, and she couldn’t get it off.  We finally made it to the hospital and got checked in at the desk, and were directed to the waiting area. While waiting, several gurneys came in from the ambulance services, with additional patients. Once checked in at the desk, some of these were also directed to take a seat in the waiting room.  There were several people with heat related maladies. They, as we, waited for hours before being admitted to the emergency services personnel.

Some of us chatted with each other, sympathizing with the situation, and encouraging each other to hang in there. I don’t know if their brains felt fried, but one, who worked at a car wash, had stomach cramps and vomiting so severe that he couldn’t keep anything down, including the water he was trying to drink, and another one, who had been working outside for the previous two days, had muscle cramps in his arms and hands, which caused his fingers and wrists to turn inward and lock up. So many suffering with fried muscles, fried stomachs, and fried lungs,  from excessive exposure to heat, and profuse sweating, (with and without external applications of water)  without enough internal hydration, or replacement of vital minerals and salts.

Whatever is causing this years weather, ozone holes (which they say is healing, now) pre-volcanic earth crust heating, extra moons, or wobbly, eccentric planetary orbits,  it’s hot and humid this summer.  Watch out for yourselves, and each other. Stay hydrated. Add more salt to your diet, to help your body hang on to your water, and eat or drink more foods with high mineral contents, (milk, bananas, potatoes, melons, etc.)  to replace what sneakily gets sweated out, even when you don’t notice it.    Try not to let your brain fry, like eggs on a hot summer sidewalk.

 

Other links you may like:

About

https://themusicofpoetry.wordpress.com/category/poetry-2/stanzas/

© Ellen M Lattz and emariaenterprises, llc 2016.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author, Ellen M. Lattz, and/or blog owner, is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ellen M. Lattz, and emariaenterprises with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.