It really should be a garden blog...

After all the garden is producing a shower of gifts on a daily basis... how to salt them tomatoes,  how to garlic fry them beans, and how to preserve the garlic line to keep the Bold Point lineage alive and well.

Lets, just to settle the score present A brief defense of texting, sent in by one of our stalwart Internet friends:

--texting is not meant to substitute for real life communication.
--texting is for making appointments and asking "where are you".
--when asking (or responding to) "where are you", it takes way less time/effort to text than to call.
--if one is seated at a restaurant, or sitting on a train running late to meet a friend at a restaurant, texting provides a way to have the "where are you" conversation without disturbing the strangers around you.
-- People talking on phones are disruptive.
--people texting are generally not disruptive.
--as long as they stand away from footpaths.
--and are not driving.
--it is never OK to answer "where are you" texts when driving
-- if you believe your friend may be driving, it is also not polite to send "where are you" texts
--it is however OK in that case to send "buy milk on your way home" texts as long as the recipient is your significant other who knows to check texts quickly at the stop sign near the grocery store but never while actually driving.
--it is good to know where the people close to you are. Especially if you have reservations or tickets or are staging any sort of heist.
--appointment making is another great use of texts.
--your hairstylist or Pilate's instructor will be disturbed by a ribgibg of a phone call.
--plus, everyone hates listening to voicemail.
--send a text!
--any apps available this sat after 2pm--Jim Johnson
--can't do class Thurs -is the asstastic class on for sun? Room 4 me?--Jim Johnson
--try calling it "messaging" instead of texting and see if that helps.
--if you don't want to hear incoming texts beep, set phone to vibrate.
--ooh, vibrate.
--that way one doesn't even know a text was sent until they are ready.
--when they are ready, there it is. At least it's not a voicemail!
--"my thumbs are too big for the keys" is poor excuse. Be able-bodied. Use your index finger.


so there we have it...  I still say i have beer in the fridge, food in the garden and a shotgun in the drawer.  Actually i don't have a shotgun... these crazy wives are against shotguns.

Maybe I'll get a plan for my cell phone... is there an app that reminds yourself to punch yourself in the face if you turn into some cellphone punching jackass every second you have downtime, which of course removes the possibility of downtime?  I just don't like the bad with the good.  And then to pay for the bad is equally annoying, on principle of course.  Principle is everything, if there is no principle there is no path,  like religion but more sane like.

Know yourself, know what you can handle and what you can't.  I have never commuted by car to work since i was 23 teaching Chemistry and Physics in a high school in Toronto.  I will never commute by car to work again, it's just not in me.  Many people do it, and many are happy to do it, i would be a cloud of rage... i would hate myself for allowing myself to be in that position.  I believe i am responsible for everything that happens to me.

i might rethink my television aversion...  You see we went camping with a pack of fine families and i happened to lead a bunch of old classic campfire songs which sent the kids into a frenzy, perhaps causing some adults some pain in the regurgitation of a few certain songs over and over again, but in the end i made a few new friends... some kids, and one of the kids knew a lot about nature and the shit he knew was right.  i asked him where he learned all that stuff and he told me it was nature TV shows... he knew his stuff, when he called a call it was on the money.  I have kept my kids from television because of all of the obvious over the top bullshit it entails.  But there is a tool there provided the right direction is enforced.  I kind of have a bit more of a hands off parenting style, and my kids do art all day and write stories and make up games, but perhaps and hour of nature television programming might be good for them... the question is can i ward off the bullshit princess programming that runs insipid in our society?  Hey be a pretty girl with a nice dress and then maybe someday a prince will complete you and you will live happily ever after.

Be smart, live right and form a good team with your partner cause life ain't going to get any easier.  We are on the downward curve of the human cycle... just listen to the nonsense the people in charge of society are spewing, it's bat shit crazy!

why even title this? Don't judge a blog by it's tilte

I guess on one hand it's good to have people reading blogs, for good or Ill, but i happened to take numerous complaints about the last little blogaroo... people can get real touchy about their cell phone use, even if it's framed within the context of my lack of cell phone use.  They are suppose to be rock and roll people, but when you say the wrong word they get real touchy like they got a big stick in their ass...  Quoting Smash talking to Carl Fatman.

Having a bank of readied quotes is a fine game in my life... like cover songs by artists that nobody knew existed.  I was a Monty Python quoter in high school.. that was our era... only cause i didn't have my own material at that time... and i was a fucking idiot.  Meh, water under the bridge, acid off a ducks back... i mean water, water off a ducks back... yes we quote "the far side" too.  Actually my first band "The Van Gophers" had a song  that just ran punchlines from the far side in between musical interludes... the band had other problems, although we did get on the radio with a song that generated a great deal of notoriety.  As we have pointed out..  Notoriety, can really hurt you when you want to be pro... from the song Saskatchewan, which is set in a car in the middle of Canada, with another member of the Van Gophers, on our way to be Knockin' Dog.  For the record, knockin' Dog is a Trinidadian expression, meaning laying around doing nothing.   Dr. Ken Rodney walked into the house, looked down and saw a big mess of shoes and other items and said "Look at all this stuff here, my money, knockin' dog!"  Clearly it's a winner, i won't even take arguments on that one...  It would be ideal if i could dig into the tapes and find some of the Rehearsal tapes from Undertones...  there is a pretty killer version of Chicken in there... the studio version, despite admirable efforts... actually now that i think of it there is that 2 plus minute "Stairway to Chicken".. fucking unbelievable.  If you are ever in a band with somebody and they start trying to tell you that samples and studio gimmicks will save the day, do yourself a favour and punch that person out!  Seems a little violent for sure, but don't be fooled, you would be doing a service to anybody in witness range to smarten the fuck up.  But in reality, if your strengths are lyric writing and song melodies, and being one king hell weirdo who speaks the truth with authority... then don be a jackass thinking you can learn to twist knobs real cool like. (hybrid quoting the drumheller boogie)

I think i remember what i was writing about in the last paragraph, but i just took a big music break.. played a bunch of tunes... one of them was a Bruce Cockburn number.  Not sure i want to revisit the tangent i was on.  why write and then post it then?.. think of it as a big text to Mule, who happens to be reading this in his underwear for all i can imagine a certain line of therapy might suggest.  For the record i was referring to the idea that one way to overcome stage freight, so they say, is to imagine the audience in their underwear.  Personally i don't suffer from stage freight, although it would do me good if i had some of that in me... i suffer from stage indifference which is highlighted by sniffing on a different trail..  A little stage freight would keep you on your toes... although in reality I'm rarely on a stage that people actually want me on... I'm usually this disturbance in the other side of the room interrupting conversations and text messages... gives you a bit more of a stage loathing than stage freight... freight is good is Adrenalin... Adrenalin is a fine drug... might even be banned one day... Sir now we are going to have to remove your adrenal gland... we don't want anybody getting excited in this society for obvious safety concerns... but officer what will then regulate my heart rate , blood pressure and air passage diameters...  Have no fear son her are some vouchers that will get you %15 off ePROphine™ at participating pharmacies...

Another deep end... i just googled "ePROphine™"... looks like it can still be trademarked... might be a good dollar for the person who nabs that one now.

There was some recent controversy on Gay Marriage last week... some rich hypocrite hiding behind the Lords message that has been twisted to suit his needs came out in support of traditional marriage only, perhaps to boost sales in his fast food business, or perhaps he believes he is more right and more holy than other citizens that he has prejudged without knowing at all... apparently there are many traditional marriages in the bible,   some allow the woman to be stoned if they don't act right... i am told.  Interpretations of the bible are everything of course, so some people believe that it is imperative that this union only be allowed between a man and a woman in a society, where marriage provides great privilege, but yet is taxed on a person to person basis.   Am i for gay Marriage?  I'm more of an anti-Marriage person myself... i just see it as an industry than lands good people in hot venues in wool suits to listen to a pile of garbage, while people go broke throwing a party that they can't even enjoy because it is innately trained into them that it HAS TO GO PERFECT...  My advise... simple wedding and put the money into a down payment and start living that blessed life with your love.

I have been to a few good weddings for sure, and i missed a fine on up on a mountain where there was a skating rink and some good rock and roll... actually going to a good one next weekend where it said "we want you to wear something comfortable cause we want you to play games"... I'll have fun... but most people don't roll that way.  The thing that kills me about this anti gay marriage crusade...  is to take the right of others in a society to have the privilege of being able to produce a marriage certificate to receive societal gains... and that's what its about... It should be about children if you ask me... the children are the future of our society the will be left to "drive our economy"... it's the child's benefit to help make their life better, to help make society better... who cares about the sexual orientation of the parents. I'm pretty much agnostic, if i were to define my religion, it would be that... although i am working on my own religion... for the record i will be the only follower... I don't believe or disbelieve in any deity, but yet people are more than happy to marry me to my wife under the eyes of a deity, apparently, if i pay the fee, and in the end if i ever have any immigration issues, a quick flash of my marriage certificate calms all officials.  Now i know a few gay parents with children, my children have played with their children, i can be very sure in saying that i have met far far far worse heterosexual parents... probably due to simple math, knowing a greater sample size... i have met heterosexual parents where i just shake my head and feel so sorry for the child being delivered this warped sense of love and values.  But on paper when you draw lines like that you make terrible mistakes.  Denying certain families the opportunity to show that piece of paper when it comes to claiming societal benefits is just downright mean and nasty.  And doing it in the name of God for the good of a clearly corrupt society is just beyond comprehension in my view.

Many men are different, and few do see, that it's not what we represent, but it's who we may be.
"frustrated man"

should probably just delete this, but it's what i thought

Just not a texting kind of guy

So far the working title has improved, and that's a good thing.

There is no doubt that being able to send and receive messages instantly, could put one at a great advantage from time to time.  For sure, but when have humans ever not lost their minds and overdone things like this so that in the end the net benefit comes out a bit behind to the net negative?

Like what if you are walking down the street, or a path for that matter... having a great day, wondering what the world might bring you, with your receptors open for something you might run into and change the way you think about something important... and just then your pocket buzzes and some jackass texts you with some ass brained plan and you find yourself drawn into something for good or ill, and then there is another text before you are ready to respond... fiasco.

It happened years ago to me with a cell phone, a beautiful night giddy with the possibilities, loving life and the stars, and some loon phoned me up trying to pile some of their shit on my wagon... cause their wagon's axle was under stress if you know what i mean.

I guess i don't see why being in "touch" is so important... i fail to see much sanity in most of society so i guess the less i can be involved the better.  Don't get me wrong, I'm highly social, i just think sometimes tools like this give the fools more power to fuck with the doers.  Rather than make a plan to be some where at some time it's a "well I'll text you and see how it's going on my end".

I remember a few times running a music night and having people fuck around and then after the fact try to justify their end cause they tried to text me 15 minutes before show time to let me know what was happening on their "end".  It was as if some magical text could explain everything and reroute the spinning of the earth, to slow down the day to just make a little time man... On my end we start playing music here, and we end there... like we do every week.  Some how a human forgot that reality can't be changed with a text message, but it won't stop them from trying.

My wife and i have 3 kids, work, do activities and neither of us have a cell phone... OHHH is that even safe?  How do we do it? people ask us... same way we always have is the answer.  Put the cable tv and the cell phone budget into the mortgage and talk to me next decade.

I am the cake and the cake stands alone... Quoting Mule Hughes songs now.  I believe that one should never give humans more options... i know it sounds like free enterprise and freedom in general but it is actually a lie... rather than answering the question you are just charging them to enter the club and in the club they actually lose freedom, and information and communication becomes more diluted.  So you get the odd important nugget of info but you may have to suffer many unfortunate thoughts in between.  I do facebook and get some good  and Ill communication there, i check email many times a day i answer my phone... just to say, I'm not completely isolated.  By the way, do they have text ads?... for sure they do... they must... the next domain.  What if i got a cell phone with texting and Safeway texted me cause they gouged my number on their totally dishonest "give me your information or we will totally soak you" pricing schemes?    If i got a text from Safeway alerting me of some super saver moment i would be furious with myself having let my guard down and allowed such a ridiculous thing to happen... and the thing is you need a text plan... when i did have a cell phone, last time, and one of the reasons i got rid of it was that i started getting texts, that i could never successfully respond to, and i had to pay for.  An unwelcome diversion that cost me money... probably 2 of the worst things you could do to a person of my nature.

On another but the same point, i always have a lot of food in my house so if you come by, I'd be happy to feed you... just saying that I'm not a complete shyster that hates people, which if read with a small mind, one might determine from the last sentence like thing, in that last paragraph like thing.

The truth is, for the most part, many people "connected' spend all their time (even while socializing with real humans) punching at a small screen forgetting somehow that the world is out there, the one that they are breathing in.  You finally get together with somebody and you spend your night staring at your phone... sure not everybody does that, but it's really becoming the norm.  I'm sure many fools texted each other outraged over BC Hydro's decision to install  smart meters worrying about radiation from the meter meanwhile the phone in their hand is emitting more.

I realize texting has great purpose for many people, and it adds to some lives in many positive ways, but it ain't for me, i know that... I'll be here on my path doing my thing and if you want to come and say hi please do, but i just can't join this train at this time there is too much to lose and too little to gain.

If i could make money with a texting phone, that required communication of that sort with co-workers or bosses, i'm sure i would change my tune... I had a small issue with my last job where they tried to tell me i should have a cell phone... of course my point was that if they think i should have a phone then they should pay for it and not just take advantage of the idea that every unimportant fool thinks they should have a cell phone.  For the most part I am an unimportant fool that knows i don't need one, even though one would come in handy every once in a while, it's not a need.