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Saturday, October 19, 2013

CHOOSE ...


(not just for k)

...to be happy
a better life for yourself
love
laughter
giggles
all that brings you peace
and well being

...to throw away misery
melancholy
meanness
resentment
regret
unhappiness

whether poor or rich
choose for yourself

to keep a smile on your face
the warm glow knowing that you are loved

live well
spend your time wisely
do not waste your time
'tis all you have
find the fastest easiest way to get a job done
so there is more time to do those things
that you would rather choose to do
than have to do

give yourself
a gift
acknowledge accomplishments
reward success

be kind to yourself
treat yourself well
take really good care of yourself

acquire good habits
always do your best

do not spend your time teaching yourself to be sloppy
always do your best
it will then become your second nature
like thinking happy thoughts
giggling
laughing

hug yourself you made it through another day
you have learned the value of well being
practice being happy
practice silliness
practice being happy
practice giggling

remember the good times
savor the good times
cherish the good times
and most of all
be good to yourself. 

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

poGo patrons

If you have ever played games at the site you know it is a little bit quirky.  If you play a card gave with robots you will notice they are programmed to be a better partner to the opponent than to the side they are on, or they do not pick up cards their side needs. That's ok, it is not a chess match, and if you want to practice and there is no one to play with, the bots will help you think better about yourself.

The site has many games to sharpen the brains that have grown a little dull, as with age, so good problem solving and fun games too. They are not, the card games it is, random, as probably are the other games also. Most of the time, you are the winner, the reward is virtual currency to be used at their virtual store or virtual badges of honor to further challenge personal competition. Sometimes they are fun, other times they are too many challenges to achieve within the scheduled time frame, simply redundantly boring.

Oh, and yes, you can chat with players at a small space while playing games. Most times players say hi and say where they are, Nova Scotia, Chicago etc. But you don't have to chat if you choose not to.

What is in fact an interesting note is the quality of the players. Some are very sharp and competitive. Others are down right rude, stopping playing a game to answer the phone, leaving the other players to wonder if the players screen is frozen, they do this without standing up at the table and letting the robot play their hand until they return. They give the brb (be right back abbreviation) and leave the other players hanging. Or they dilly around past the time expired waiting to get additional time to play.

Along with the rude players mentioned above the site has an extraordinary amount of bad sports - or it is a malaise of the times. If the bad sport is losing they just get up and leave in the middle of play -disappear into the sunset - without finishing the game, they give up and run away. And if they win, they flash one of the faces like the smiley sun, or dancing cactus, to gloat their success. These are the people who must win, who absolutely refuse to accept failure -which in life may be a good thing - who knows, but they ruin the experience or competition for all the others. Like 'I'm not playing unless I can be the chief'. For those of us who enjoy the challenge and appreciate a worthy opponent, when the bad sport begins to lose and drops the game, we are glad they leave. They remind us of the bad sport tennis players that go into their temper tantrums like little children, only there are proportionately more of them at this site, maybe it is really a magnet.

"They paved paradise..."

"I see a dead tire and a couch with a broken leg!"

"There's another bottle! And a big black plastic bag, wonder what's in it?"

"Ok kids, enough of that, why don't you go back to counting red cars?"

"Ooh! Look, there's a bottle."

 "OK". "OK."

 "There's the sod company. I wonder how they put the dirt back on the ground after they cut out the patches of sod?" "That's a good question?"

 "Number one. I saw the first red one!"

 "Wow, look at all the new construction, you think they are making it six lanes?" "Looks like it." "Here too, wow, wonder what they are building?" "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot…." "Remember that song?" "Hmmm."

 "You know, when we were watching that football game the other night, the college game where they were playing in the rain, on the field had the fake grass?" "Yeah." "Well, I was thinking, did you ever hear of a grass museum?" "Uh, no. Why?" I think it may be time for someone to make a grass or lawn museum. Soon the kids in the next generation will never know what grass is, they'll have to go to a museum to see it, like the petting zoo for animals, where they can go in and touch grass, to see what it feels like. Pretty soon there won't be any more real grass like blue grass or rye grass, it'll be cement and artificial turf." "Uh, maybe, hope not in our lifetime."

 "Well, think about it, they are widening roadways, adding overpasses that move acres of rock and dirt. They drive right through towns and never make it a place to visit. Most of the new roads go straight somewhere bypassing everything in between. Remember, we would to take a ride and stop and visit towns as we drove along. We would notice local mom and pop shops with their own signature décor, everything was different, some places had country curtains or colorful tablecloths.

  We don't see anything of the towns anymore as we ride the road, all we see are highway arches in the distance. It is always the same thing. The same chains stores are everywhere with all the same facades. Everything the same, doesn't matter how many miles we travel, nothing new to look at.    Where ever we go we can get salty pizza, or burgers and fries. There are automotive supply chains, pharmacy chains, big retail chains, nothing different, no choice, nor variety. Soon it will all be uniforms, we'll all wear the same clothing, we'll all eat the same food, drive the same autos, fill up at the same chains. They call it the economies of scale, but I call it monopolies. Monopolies that are soooooo big they tell us what we want and what we can have. No longer is it a consumer driven economy but a mega corporate economy, a few big companies telling us what to choose and when to choose it. Remember in town there was the clothing store on Main Street, where we would walk and window shop? There is no such thing as window shopping any more. I miss that. I miss seeing what is offered without having to go into the store. I miss being outside in the fresh air looking to decide if I want to go into a place, if I like what they are offering. Now if I want something I have to walk into the store and walk all the way across the building to see if they have the color towels I want or what style shoes they carry.

  I liked seeing the way people, those mom and pop people, decorated their businesses. I liked seeing their personalities. Now, it's just the same. All of the same. Yes, it took longer to get from A to B but there were things to see in between. All I see is cement and macadam. Besides that, now they have divided communities. It is difficult thing to walk across cross six lanes. They don't have stop lights. All you can do is drive there, from one side of the road to the other. People can't even cross the road to visit their neighbors.

  Boy, talk about segregation and alienation. All in the name of progress. If you think I like it you are mistaken. And the sound of all that traffic moving faster, past homes and what is left of small businesses is probably dangerous, sucking in all those fumes every time they open their front door. Like that French movie we saw, where the family home was surrounded by fields and then a roadway was built right next to them and they had to wear gas masks to go outdoors, and they sealed up the whole house, all the windows, so the pollution wouldn't get in.

  Remember that fast food place we stopped at yesterday for coffee?" "Yes." "Well right across the one lane street from it there is a house. Their front door opened to see the parking lot and all the cars that came and stopped and left and arrived and kept moving through and those big rigs, those monster trucks, the ones who never turn off their engines when they are stopped. And the gas station with the radio blasting over outdoor speakers, right across the street from somebody's home, I bet the homeowners can't even watch their own tv or read a book without hearing the radio across the street, all in the name of progress. "

 "The more I think of it the more important that grass museum will be. Like the museums of the old west, a view of the bygone era. No grass, sad. No more listening to the noise from lawn mowers on Saturday mornings, maybe they ought to make a lawn mower museum too."