Had so much fun with this one.... Pepe is locally famous.... And if you go to a classic car show, you just might see one he's driven, worked on, or owns.
10/26/24
10/23/24
10/18/24
MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR A FRIEND
How many people have come through your life to walk just a little ways with you?
My friend, let's call him John, was that way... Actually I became his friend at the same time I became the friend of his long time companion, let's call her Betty. Betty and John had meet over 20 years earlier and became good friends with each other over time. They outlasted many others who walked just a little ways with them, some who had passed onto The Other Side. When I met them, though they had never lived together, there had been blended family vacations. They had breakfast with each other five mornings a week, sometimes McDonalds, though his favorite food was peanut butter and hers is grilled cheese.
These two managed to support each other through so very much over the years. I personally came into their friendship circle late. He would say to me "Any of these guys give you a hard time, just let me know. I know exactly what to say." At that time I became a member of his (mythical) "harem" though he never was called to duty. Also, John was a dirty joke teller and I'm the only person in recorded history to turn one around on him and make him blush.
John had the rather common combo of high blood pressure and diabetes, and seemed to be doing well enough but then something rather unexpected happened to Betty. Long a resident of her part of Southern California, living with a daughter in her big house for a couple decades, Betty went to vacation with her other daughters who live in another state. We anticipated her returning for her birthday, last spring, and I was going to throw her a surprise welcome home party... So, though I had not talked to her in months, I started calling her to get the details about her return. And, well, it turned out her daughter decided it was time she stay in the other state, where her sisters could "share" their mother.
The way this was pulled off wasn't, as we say in the Valley, kosher, and it was news to John too. We all wondered how much she knew when she was driven to the other state in a vehicle quite full of her possessions to "visit." Upon the realization that Betty would not be back, John's medical condition worsened. He was a veteran and headed for the VA where he was put on dialysis. He went from no dialysis to dialysis three days a week. Into a nursing home - where he soon learned he was evicted - and all his possessions thrown to the street.
I had offered to go in and take out what he wanted.
Without hesitation he said he wanted his fishing rods, eight jars of peanut butter, and some rocks he hadn't finished tumbling. To me this meant that he was looking forwards to getting home and back to activities and things he loved. But the loss of the apartment meant that he knew there was no going home.
On a visit he said, "I've had more years than most people get," and "I just want to live long enough to get my 50 year chip from A.A." So Betty and I endeavored to get him that chip, a little early... We went and bought it... but he died before we could present it.
The VA had John cremated and in a box so fast, his poor daughter who had flown in from across the world had it in her hands on the flight back practically the day after he died. No funeral, no viewing... I tend to think the costs thrust upon us by the whole funeral business is ridiculous... but so was this.
So we decided to throw a memorial service for John, with Betty in charge, and she flew back in for an extended stay with her local daughter, after all.
We pulled it off, though it was unwieldy. Contributions of $175 helped us buy a little food. His daughter flew in. There were tearful moments, and silly-happy moments. One of the most unexpectedly beautiful but tearful moments was when a person got up and sang John Denver's Country Roads. It turned out that John's daughter had been named for the Shenandoah Valley - so she cried. Rambling Rose was John's favorite song.
10/15/24
10/12/24
SITTING IN THE PARK : BILLY STEWART
This one reminds me of my friend Gary who went to the park near the beach and fed the squirrels every day during Covid closures... Since then, once in a while, on a Sunday afternoon, I head for the park to sit with Gary and the squirrels. When I'm running late, I send him this song... I love old school soul ...
10/9/24
9/16/24
9/14/24
CARLOS CASTANEDA QUOTE from THE ACTIVE SIDE OF INFINITY
page 78-79 paperback
"I began my story, telling don Juan that the circumstances of my life have never permitted me to be introspective. As far back in my past as I can remember, my daily life has been filled to the brim with pragmatic problems that have clamored for immediate resolution. I remember my favorite uncle telling me that he was appalled at having found out that I had never received a gift for Christmas or my birthday.
I had come to live in my father's family home not too long before he made that statement. He (Don Juan) commiserated with me about the unfairness of my situation. He even apologized, although it had nothing to do with him.
.... He (my uncle) insisted over and over that I had to forgive the people who had wronged me. From what he said, I formed the impression that he wanted me to confront my father with his finding and accuse him of indolence and neglect, and then, of course, forgive him. He failed to see that I didn't feel wronged at all. Asking me to do required an introspective nature that would make me respond to the barbs of psychological mistreatment once they were pointed out to me....
I never had the opportunity to think about it, but my uncle must have talked to my father, because I got a gift from him, a package neatly wrapped up, with a ribbon and all, and a little card that said "Sorry."
I curiously and eagerly ripped the wrappings. There was a cardboard box, and inside it there was a beautiful toy, a tiny boat with a a winding key attached to the steam pipe. It could be used by children to play with while they took baths in the bathtub. My father had thoroughly forgotten that I was already fifteen years old and for all practical purposes, a man."
"I began my story, telling don Juan that the circumstances of my life have never permitted me to be introspective. As far back in my past as I can remember, my daily life has been filled to the brim with pragmatic problems that have clamored for immediate resolution. I remember my favorite uncle telling me that he was appalled at having found out that I had never received a gift for Christmas or my birthday.
I had come to live in my father's family home not too long before he made that statement. He (Don Juan) commiserated with me about the unfairness of my situation. He even apologized, although it had nothing to do with him.
.... He (my uncle) insisted over and over that I had to forgive the people who had wronged me. From what he said, I formed the impression that he wanted me to confront my father with his finding and accuse him of indolence and neglect, and then, of course, forgive him. He failed to see that I didn't feel wronged at all. Asking me to do required an introspective nature that would make me respond to the barbs of psychological mistreatment once they were pointed out to me....
I never had the opportunity to think about it, but my uncle must have talked to my father, because I got a gift from him, a package neatly wrapped up, with a ribbon and all, and a little card that said "Sorry."
I curiously and eagerly ripped the wrappings. There was a cardboard box, and inside it there was a beautiful toy, a tiny boat with a a winding key attached to the steam pipe. It could be used by children to play with while they took baths in the bathtub. My father had thoroughly forgotten that I was already fifteen years old and for all practical purposes, a man."
9/11/24
9/9/24
IMMINENT by LUIS ELIZONDO : CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW and COMMENTARY
I listened to this excellent book as an audiobook, after listening to a number of interviews of author Luis Elizondo via YouTube versions of radio programs. I always like it when an author reads their own work, which he did. I got a sense of the man's values and personality from all of this, and so I decided to hear the details not given on programs by listening to the book. Though he, as most UAP researchers, investigators, and experiencers do, experiences criticism, censure, retaliation and even revenge, Elizondo is entirely believable about his experience working for the Pentagon and the defense of the United States of America, after being in the military and participating in war. When he says thousands of reports by pilots have been made of unexplainable Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, and that our Navy has evidence of Unidentified Phenomena that enters and is in the oceans, I believe it. I also believe our Presidents have since the mid 1950's been given some idea we are not alone in the universe. I believe it is possible that we have evidence of physical air ships and actual alien bodies, that some inventions are "reverse engineered." I can say that in this moment I doubt any of this will have a profound effect on my own life.
I encourage you to read this book and arrive at your own notions. Then I need to make a departure because I personally don't agree with Elizondo - or some others such as Linda Moulton Howe, whose Earthfiles podcasts I often listen to, that humans are ready for "full disclosure."
Elizondo mentions that some of his colleagues at the Pentagon told him to read his Bible and support the theory that "they" - the aliens of various types - are demons. This is the very reason I don't agree humans are ready for "full disclosure." Not because I agree or disagree that the aliens are all demons and not because I believe in "literal interpretations" of the Bible, which I do not. Rather it's because I've encountered those humans who do, in particular Fundamentalist Christians (who are as anti-Catholic as you can get in America) and seem invested in End Times, which they very much want to happen ASAP. (Not for nothing that Fox News, with it's Republican following, has taken on the reveal.) End Times; Even if it's bloody violent and millions die agonizing deaths, for not being Christian or the right kind of Christian, and the perpetrator is none other than Jesus Christ or God the Father. (Am I confused that the message was peace and love?) Some of these people have their plans for the End of the World scenarios ready, from hideaway bunkers and a years worth of food in the basement to their own ammunitions; we can fear that they take their inspiration from school shooters.
One time, a year or so ago, while at the library, I overheard a woman talking excitedly about a book and so I asked her what she was reading. She said her minister loved this book, and I ordered it, thinking it was non-fiction. When I received it I wondered what church and what minister was telling his members that this fiction book typified what would happen when Jesus came again. (Maybe the same ones who don't know Dan Brown's work is fiction?) I also realized she was delighting, salivating, at the violence that would occur, and that she would be saved from.
There are those who think the aliens are demons. Then there are those who've had experiences that science is trying to explain. Originally not particularly interested in UFOs/UAPs, the time came when Elizondo could not deny the information that was being shared with him absolutely meant they were real and the cover-up had been ongoing for decades. In his book, Imminent, Elizondo tries to explain how they might defy gravity while also maneuvering at tremendous speed and just how behind we are technologically.
Elizondo says that for a while he, his wife, his children, and their neighbors, saw green orbs that made it through their walls, and overall gave an impression that they were watching.
I thought of a long ago associate who had a strong meditation practice which she did in the evenings while living at home and caring for her mother. As a member of Self Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles, she had moved beyond her religious upbringing, which was Jewish. She told me she saw orbs (if I recall they were smallish and not green) come to her when she was in meditation. She asked her guru what these were and was given a mysterious non-answer, something like that, when she was ready, she would know what they were.
I also thought of the original Star Trek television series, which I saw after school as reruns. I recall hearing people say that actor William Shatner could not act, but hey, the program was low budget for some time and he once had to talk to what looked like a plastic globe with blinking mini Christmas lights, as though it were an alien intelligence trapped in there. (These plastic globes sat on a shelf and when the lights went out, that meant that the alien had died.)
We need to suspect our disbelief.
Science doesn't function to prove but to disprove.
Say it isn't so?
C 2024 Christine Trzyna
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
9/6/24
9/3/24
EXPERIENCE FORTY-FOUR : CHRISTINE TRZYNA WRITING WORKSHOP
What's the most romantic thing you ever did?
C 2018-2024 Christine Trzyna
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
OK to use this post in not for profit situations. Please credit me. Send me love. It's karma.
8/29/24
8/27/24
UKRAINE AND RUSSIA : WHAT WE DON'T GET ABOUT RUSSIA
RUSSIA is so huge that it expands through ELEVEN TIME ZONES. All that land, all that space, but it wants Ukraine, which is the size (square miles not shape) of our state of TEXAS.
Why not use the billions of dollars dedicated to destroying UKRAINE and UKRAINIANS to build a new city within Russia, improve infrastructure, and so on? (Pick a good spot and build an all new city!)
Why do Russians have no apparent concern about a generation (or two) of young men being wiped out, leaving Russian women with fewer men to partner and mate with?
***
What seems "good" about Ukraine actually going into Russia to advance their cause?
We do not believe that the Russian people actually realize what is going on. We think the information they are being given is not honest and many of them may not understand what's been happening. Hard to believe, we know, but that's what we think. As Ukraine goes after bridges and military targets, never the less the strikes within Russia INFORM the Russian people, YES THIS IS A WAR.
Are the Russian people without an opinion?
***
We hope for an end to the violence, the ecological disaster, and a comfortable peace between the two countries.
8/6/24
RAY BRADBURY said
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."
- Ray Bradbury
8/2/24
WHAT'S REALLY STINKY ABOUT LA?
The smell of skunk marijuana is everywhere, seeping through user's pores, tainting their clothes and backpacks. Everywhere - on the street, on the bus, in buildings, and at events. It's nauseating and alienating.
So many people who self medicate with pot... on a daily basis...
As I said to a friend, who has a pot plant growing on his apartment porch, "Remember when you would encounter some person who spoke to you, and you were almost knocked out by the alcohol on their breath - pure dragon's breath. And you would think badly of them, because here was a true alcoholic who could not make their way through life without it? Same thing with these people who have the smell of skunk saturating their very being..."
For the record, I was and am all for legal medical grade marijuana. I've met the cancer patients who say it makes all the difference. I've had the professor who lamented that her mother's eyesight could have been saved. But some people are addicts and I don't think anyone should or can trust street drugs. My friend who grows his plant says he has chronic pain and smoking makes him forget that pain. I say to him "Don't you want to rid yourself of the pain so you don't have to forget about it?" He's with the VA and the VA is federal and the doctors there are not at all comfortable about anyone's use of marijuana, home-grown and legal. I realize pain-killers by prescription can be addictive too... I do... But then we get into what smoke (and second-hand smoke) do to the lungs... Or what prescription pain killers do to the internal organs...
Ugh. It's all bad.
I hate the smell of skunk.
C 2024 Christine Trzyna
7/31/24
I WOULD HAVE STAYED IN THE PRIMORDIAL SOUP
I loooved this animation. All my friends loooved it too. It's silly but profound.
7/27/24
THE FORTYISH BOY GENIUS and THE PLIGHT OF THROWN AWAY CAREGIVERS
THE FORTYISH BOY GENIUS and THE PLIGHT OF THROWN AWAY CAREGIVERS
In recent times, I met a most interesting and unusual person, for when he was sixteen he quit school to give care to his very ill mother, and she died when he was thirty eight, and he was there for her that entire time. And no his siblings were not.
And now he's alone, uneducated formally - not even a GED - and regularly pontificates on a great number of subjects. I imagine this is like Jesus in the temple, teaching the older and established rabbis, though religion is of the least interest to him. His world view is honed and he will tell you, authentically, that he's a Republican and why. He's detail oriented to a fault.
History, biochemistry, medicine, and so much else, he studied book by book for all those years while he remained at home as the one who cared for his mother and the others in the family went on their way - into mental illness, drug addiction, whoring, or some other less virtuous life.
So much we don't want to ask, such as where his siblings are now.
He's one of several people I've met in recent times who fit a profile. The child who sacrificed and then got thrown out of the family and/or thrown out of the estate/will. It's disgusting. It makes you suspicions when you meet someone new who says their sibling is caring for their parent.
So he's near forty and he's a genius no doubt, and the other thing about all those years at home and reading the equivalent of college level books, enough to be worthy of a Ph.D. in something, is that in conversation he needs to be always right. He takes over and dominates just about any conversation on any subject, and you imagine all those years when it was just him and his mom, not much social, not too many to talk to. He's making up for time.
And then you wonder, was his mother selfish? Why didn't she submit herself to another caregiver or a series of them, an assisted living, a nursing home - and free him to have a normal life, to finish high school and go on to college? Why didn't they leave the apartment? Was it financial?
She's dead. He's dead broke.
She hasn't been dead long, so I ask: "Have you had any signs from her? Any visitation dreams?"
He says no and doesn't believe he will.
He says he's trying to bulk up after not having enough to eat for some time.
Also, he's going to test out of the GED. Take a certificate course somewhere and become a techie first. Then he donates plasma for money. He says he'll get rid of storage as well as quit smoking. (He smokes though he has all sorts of advice about which vitamins and minerals are best for what ails you.)
What will he encounter in college?
I imagine him making it through many classes with ease but also being frustrated because he's going to think - or know - AND HE COULD BE RIGHT - that his knowledge is in conflict with what is being taught. It would probably take the PhD to actually be able to further an original thought. College is a whole lot about conformity in order to excel.
But we all think he will go far. Especially if his mother is there for him while on the Other Side.
C 2024 Christine Trzyna
7/21/24
PRIVACY or NONDISCLOSURE ?
I met someone several weeks ago, someone who is profoundly hard of hearing, which isn't the same as deaf. He walked over to me and gave me a note that said "I'm a punk rocker and a skateboarder but I have a good heart." He and I interacted with notes and then texts, as there was no way I was going to learn American Sign Language fast enough... We had a lot of laughs as we both made errors in understanding. He showed me his art; I understood what he was doing even if it wasn't so appealing to me.
But what really did he want with me?
So one day I said, "My girlfriends are teasing me that I have a boytoy."
He said, "Hearing that excites me."
"Well, I'm not Madonna or Cher. I can't have a boytoy."
We laughed.
On June 19th, he joked. "Don't fall in love with ME."
So I began to wonder about him.
I decided he was too young for me in general. That had a lot to do with his boyish appearance. Shorts - tennis shoes - a cap on his head.
"How old are you?" I asked.
"No comment," he said.
"Are you married? Have you been married?"
"No comment."
"Do you have children?"
"No comment."
And so it went. There was nothing he was easily willing to admit, and, as my girlfriends pointed out, he had not asked me the same questions.
"I respect women." he said.
"If or when you're my girlfriend, I will tell you those things."
The girlfriend posse agreed with me. No woman in her right mind circa 2024 becomes a man's girlfriend without knowing these basics before she gives it consideration.
The girlfriend posse also got into the act of trying to trick him into revealing some information.
You know this game. "What's your zodiac sign?" "What high school did you go to?" "What year did you graduate?"
"What was your favorite superhero when you were growing up?" he asked me.
"I don't think I ever cared about superhero's" I said.
"When I was growing up, the Green Hornet was my favorite."
I pulled out my cell phone and looked up Green Hornet. It was only on the air for one year, 1966. (But it might have been in reruns.)
"Were you born between 1950 and 1955? 1956 - 1962..." I asked.
He laughed.
He texted me, even after we spent some time together, and it went like this.
A 5 - buzz, a 4-buzz, a 3 an the a H e L L O. Then "Can I ask you a question?" It seemed to me that this was all like an alarm clock. Even when I put the phone on silent, so I could go to sleep. I started to feel pestered.
Then one night the question was "That ex-boyfriend of yours that you had coffee with the other day, how long ago did you break up with him?"
"He's still a friend. None of your business," I said. No, I didn't just say, I retorted.
I was started to loose interest in all this. The fun of the game was over. I became suspicious of his unwillingness to disclose. Was he hiding something?
I'm a private person myself, actually. And I understand that we need to protect our privacy because we are in a world in which Identity Theft is rampant.
There was also the guessing game of what his surname was. As this man is Hispanic and his surname begins with a K, I had guess Kastaneda and Kardashian, which he said made him LOL.... The icon with the tears pouring out of his eyes had been selected.
Then one day I tried one more time. I asked him how old he was, if he was or had been married, and if he had children, and he said No Comment each time.
Our friendship could go no further. I respected his boundaries. I told him "I respect your privacy and I think we have spent too much time with each other lately and should just see each other around."
He didn't get it. He didn't take it well.
It was then I decided that how many years old he was didn't matter. He was simply too immature...
C 2024 Christine Trzyna
7/17/24
I'M NOT SWAYED
I've been reading Daily Mail UK (though it is irksome) since Edward Snowden was mysteriously stuck in the airport... The headlines and "reportage" is heavily slanted against Biden and Democrats.... (Daily Mail is the second most read news publication in the world.)
I'm not swayed. I'm still a Democrat. I read with the saying "Take It With A Grain Of Salt" in mind.
I've managed to avoid buying anything from Amazon, supporting retail employees and small businesses, for years on end. Tried six different stores recently for a product that used to be on the shelves. Three of them offer me to buy it on line.... I hate to admit it but after the final visit - to a Walmart - I'm letting a friend who has Amazon Prime buy it for me - I'll pay him back.
I'm not swayed. I'm still supporting retail workers and small businesses.
My cell phone keeps prompting me to use voice, to use assistant, to use AI, and damn it but recently on the Internet I got a prompt from google to use a FINGERPRINT or facial recognition to get into the g-mail I was forced to associate with that phone in order to get updates. I will not knowingly allow my phone to record, I will not use assistant or AI.
I hope I die before we are all forced to get chipped.
I'm not swayed. I still think privacy is something that is our right as humans and something worth protecting.
Recently I experienced a barrage of Fundamentalist Christianity.
I'm not swayed.
I still think Roman Catholics are Christians, I still think the Bible cannot be taken literally, I still vote with as much intelligence and research as I can muster, and I still think LGBTG people are not condemned to eternal hell.
I attended two Juneteenth events.
I'm not swayed.
I still think the national anthem is God Bless America and that Lincoln set forth the Freeing of the Slaves (even if he was assassinated by the time Slavery was ended.) And Racism, horrible, is not always going in one direction from White to Black.
C 2024 Christine Trzyna
Note on July 17, 2024 Sorry, because the Star Spangled Banner is the National Anthem, but since so many people cannot sing it - and singing it becomes spectacle - I think of God Bless America as the one most of us retreat to. My point it, at Juneteeth celebrations (I attended TWO) it was suggested that Americans with historical slavery ancestry have a separate nation because they have their OWN NATIONAL ANTHEM.... divisive!
7/13/24
TWELVE THIRTY : THE MAMAS and THE PAPAS
Though I didn't live in the canyon when songs like these were being recorded, there's still a vibe ....
if only you travel it at the right time...
7/10/24
7/7/24
7/3/24
6/30/24
6/5/24
COME HOME : ANDERSON PAAK
I played this one dozens of times...and can't get it out of my mind.
Thinking of my musician friend Christopher who plays and teaches base guitar. (And could show up on a moped with a fluffy dog named Molly.)
Strong base on this one...
Thinking of my artist friend Tony who said he could not relate at all. He says he gave it all up and cannot stretch canvas or paint any more. Tony this song is a painting.
6/3/24
SPILL THE WINE : ERIC BURDEN and WAR
This song had to be at the front of "World Music." It was considered a novelty tune, something to dance to at the swimming pool.
5/30/24
MUSINGS BEFORE THE DANCE
Will I dance tonight?
When I woke up tired, woke again under a hot shower, put on a dress, forgot my comb, rushed to the bus, crushed my clothes, listened with earphones to Anderson Paak, dissed the younger man who has a crush on me because he won't tell me how old he is - by text, had a free cup of coffee, said good morning to five people I passed in the hall even though it does not feel like a good morning to me, swore a banana would be all I'll eat for lunch, was misunderstood, peed out belly fat busting vitamins, hunched over on the computer, charged my phone, thought about the question a woman who is too curious asked me:
"If I didn't know better I would think you were out and about with a boyfriend." she said.
"No boyfriend." I said.
What business is it of hers?
Trying to be girly-girl friends.
"No. Not me!" I said.
"You know how rumors start," I said. She thought for a moment about that one.
I wore a dress. I almost never wear a dress. But it's summer. Officially. Past Memorial Day. It is an old dress I can't remember buying, my best dress, an eternal dress, floral by Ralph Lauren. And there is a dance tonight. And I'm going and it's nobody's business but mine.
A dinner dance. I signed up by scanning. I'm thinking of the songs I would play if I were the DJ. I'm hoping the music won't be too dreary. I hope it won't be people sitting around the perimeter, up against the walls, watching other people dance.
I hope everyone makes a fool of themselves.
That's the difference between then and now.
I'm much more willing to make a fool of myself now.
And let other people take me or leave me.
So maybe, someone might ask me to dance and I'll say no.
Or maybe I'll walk over to someone and say, "Can I have this dance?" and it will be a slow song and he will be the only one I think of as My Sweet Prince.
C 2024 Christine Trzyna
5/28/24
5/22/24
FOODIE : EXPERIENCE FORTY-THREE : CHRISTINE TRZYNA WRITING WORKSHOP
Choose a food or ingredient you despise or a favorite and write all about it. Or imagine a food you've never tasted or swallowed or digested, and write with imagination about what it might be like to experience eating it!
(I personally do not understand what anyone gets out of eating hot peppers.)
C 2018-2024 Christine Trzyna
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
OK to use this post in not for profit situations. Please credit me. Send me love. It's karma.
5/15/24
5/4/24
WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR DOG? : TALKING TO STRANGERS
Where's your dog?
She died.
Oh, the sweet dog!
See, I put her pictures on my phone. She was almost fifteen. She died in her own bed.
When I was growing up, I had a way with animals. But I was mean to my cat when I was eight. I put it in a metal pan with lots of you know - suds - and washed it all up. It scratched up the metal pan. That sound.
It was punishing you for washing it with all those suds.
(laughter)
But my father - in my country - he had - what would you say? - a way with the animals. He had a horse and when it was pregnant, he wouldn't ride it. His friends made fun of him. Why won't you ride your horse? And he would say "because she is pregnant."
Are you saying your father could communicate with the animals?
A way with the animals. Are you going to get another dog?
Not now. Not now.
C 2024 Christine Trzyna BlogSpot
5/1/24
4/23/24
HUMAN BODY : EXPERIENCE FORTY-TWO : CHRISTINE TRZYNA WRITING WORKSHOP
This exercise was created after a hilarious experience I had recently. I was with a group of women, most totally unknown to me, ranging in age from mid forties to seventies, and one of them accused another of them of farting. Soon we as individuals and a group were either laughing out loud or repressing ourselves from doing so. Some of us had ordered old fashioned bean soup with lots of carrots and ham and well, there was a lot of witnessing about digestion, food allergies, and farts. Telling a friend of mine about this, he said, "But it's a natural body function."
So, those of you who are following along on my Christine Trzyna Writing Workshop here on Google Blogger, may want to write - be that seriously or with a sense of fun - about the human body.
Are there natural functions you are uncomfortable with or are you a beast?
Don't let me repress you!
C 2018-2024 Christine Trzyna
All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
OK to use this post in not for profit situations. Please credit me. Send me love. It's karma.
4/18/24
4/15/24
4/13/24
I HAVE LONGED TO MOVE AWAY by DYLAN THOMAS
I Have Longed To Move Away
by Dylan Thomas
I have longed to move away
From the hissing of the spent lie
And the old terrors' continual cry
Growing more terrible as the day
Goes over the hill into the deep sea;
I have longed to move away
From the repetition of salutes,
For there are ghosts in the air
And ghostly echoes on paper,
And the thunder of calls and notes.
I have longed to move away but am afraid;
Some life, yet unspent, might explode
Out of the old lie burning on the ground,
And, crackling into the air, leave me half-blind.
Neither by night's ancient fear,
The parting of hat from hair,
Pursed lips at the receiver,
Shall I fall to death's feather.
By these I would not care to die,
Half convention and half lie.
From the hissing of the spent lie
And the old terrors' continual cry
Growing more terrible as the day
Goes over the hill into the deep sea;
I have longed to move away
From the repetition of salutes,
For there are ghosts in the air
And ghostly echoes on paper,
And the thunder of calls and notes.
I have longed to move away but am afraid;
Some life, yet unspent, might explode
Out of the old lie burning on the ground,
And, crackling into the air, leave me half-blind.
Neither by night's ancient fear,
The parting of hat from hair,
Pursed lips at the receiver,
Shall I fall to death's feather.
By these I would not care to die,
Half convention and half lie.
4/11/24
THE AMAZING AFTERLIFE OF ANIMALS by KAREN A. ANDERSON : CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW
From my notes:
A new life as an energetic being: we look to them like glowing orbs of light but recognized as us...
Energy goes where your attention goes.... If you encounter obstacles you're on the wrong path.
Clairalience is the psychic ability of smell... (And we know how dogs have such a tremendously greater sense of smell than we do.)
Animal can reincarnate in another type of animal...
"Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened" -Anatole France
After a while, the animal will not be strongly around you. Their soul evolves. They may help other humans or animals cross over or prepare to reincarnate or merge with group consciousness and have their own spiritual path... They may no longer be on the Other Side.
***
I always hope my dog will be waiting for me but I always acknowledged that she had her own spiritual path and also had ancestors and also children. I thought that she might have been assigned to me and that someone else was calling her back as well.
One day when I was dog sitting I proceeded to comb out the other dog's hair first and then my dog's hair. I set them both down on the floor and proceeded to put my grooming equipment away. Then I noticed that the two dogs were united in looking up at something or someone invisible to me. They were looking up at the same angle. This was not at a door or window but towards a wall that had a small children's chair below it. The chair was where the home owner left leashes. Because my dog was getting frail and nearing fifteen, I anticipated that she might now have a lot of time. This was a few months before she died and one of the "signs" I later thought. Was a previous owner coming for her? Or perhaps a deceased friend of mine?
C Christine Trzyna 2024 All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
3/3/24
YOUTUBE CONTENT CREATERS QUITTING YOUTUBE : OPINION BY CHRISTINE TRZYNA
eI don't so social media. Blogging can be social media but I turned the comments off on this blog long ago and rarely comment on other people's blogs. I simply do not have the time to be all and do all. I've put a great amount of time into this blog as well as some other projects I've worked on. I hope other people will benefit a bit from my Writing Workshop posted here or enjoy the same music I do, but other than that, I do this blog for me. To me it's like a scrapbook.
I walked in - late because there had been no prior notice - to a speaker at a library who was talking to a room of hopeful content creators who were determined to get as many hits as possible with as little dedicated time as possible. I mentioned I blogged and the speaker pretty much laughed me out of the room. "You still blog?" he said, with ridicule.
So I spoke up. I said that I did so and that I never had done it for hits, but because I love my subject. If just a few benefited from my work, that as good for me.
I listed to a number of fairly recent YouTube videos of Big Shot content creators who are quitting. They were burned out. They were unhappy with Adsense. One woman in particular exhibited her anger and explained blow by blow about how her Adsense payout jumped around; she had taken screen shots. Her complaints were dealt with by someone in another country who could only follow a script and not her complaints. Many said that they had lost the love of the process or their subject was no longer of interest. I admit to some anxiety when I feel that I have not posted as often as I would like because, as they say, "life is what happens to you while you're busy making plans." However, I also think that a feeling of obligation to my readers when it comes to creating content has also been good for me, keeping me writing, keeping me thinking, and especially allowing me to express myself beyond my real-life relationships.
A major problem for the serious YouTube content creators is that the shorts have been prioritized. I find them distracting. I'm the person who likes long episodes of deep concentration and hunts for videos on subjects that interest me that are longer.
I have long felt a concern when it comes to copyrights.
I feel that musicians and artists are always getting ripped off. I seek out videos to post that do not have ads, comfortable for me is the long ago start up spirit of contributory and no charge.
But I benefit by being able to listen to songs I remember or discover without an investment in purchasing.
The chronic ads get to me. I have never bought anything because of an ad that comes interrupting a video.
Recently Google/YouTube decided I was male based on the music I was listening to and pitched ads for me also for erectile disfunction-type medications. I had a laugh with friends over that. I have also discovered "oldies" I never knew about and have honed an appreciation for some newer artists.
I think the urge and need for hits in order to monitize, YouTube video creation as a chore rather than a joy is what has gotten to these content creators.
I think they do need to move on and others will try to take their place.
For the viewer, YouTube video watching can become an addiction.
A decade or more on a subject is a whole lot. Let's say goodbye to them with sincere well wishing.
Christine Trzyna
C 2024 All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
2/29/24
2/27/24
2/23/24
2/21/24
2/18/24
I AM I AM I AM : SEVENTEEN BRUSHES WITH DEATH by MAGGIE O'FARRELL : CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW
Saw that this book was on the London Times best seller list, found it as bought by the Friends of the Library, and sunk right into it.The experiences author Maggie O'Farrell relates are all causes for alarm and some it it made me think that the author had an uncommon number of incidents of death threats in her life, from a run in with a killer to the fear of her own baby's death. That said, what makes this book a best seller is the creative writing, the distinct voice, the way with words. There is an almost visceral quality to images and the chapters are the names of body parts, Lungs, Cranium...
The short Cranium chapter is a test. Would you think that falling in love or lust with someone was a brush with death? But that's not it. It's that spontaneity and a certain mindlessness puts her in harms way, an arm hair away from a fast moving truck because she's concerned for a dog. The mood of this chapter is tantalizing and so I'm going to excerpt from it. (Note the symbolism.) It takes place in 1998
page 151
A man and a woman are walking beside a river. The water is so slow-moving as to be almost current-less, motionless. They pause on a bridge, looking down at their reflections in the mirror-flat leaf-dinted water: he looks at hers. she looks at his. She has been collection acorns in her pockets, greenish-brown and set aside in their cups, and as they have walked, she has sifted them with her fingertips and ascertained that, yes, each acorn will fit only inside its own cup. No other cup will do.
The woman is me. The man is - well, never mind.
They are talking about their situation, their conundrum. They have fallen in love, instantly, surprisingly, dizzyingly, but there are problems. There are obstacle. Other people stand in their way - other hearts, other minds, other situations.
*****
Simply loved this book, a unique idea, carried out with the moving pacing of a drum beat.
C 2024 Christine Trzyna
The pacing is also good and
2/14/24
2/10/24
MARK SHAW - AUTHOR and DOROTHY KILGALLEN ADVOCATE ASKS US TO CONTACT THE NEW YORK DA
I've covered Mark Shaw's book about journalist Dorothy Kilgallen's mysterious death, an improbable "suicide," here on this blog circa October 2023, long after it was published. I've listened to many YouTube videos in which Shaw talked about the investigations behind his books, in particular at the Commonweath Club of California and City of Allen ACTV.
This interview is an overview of his path of authorship, one of many - mostly a year old or older, that are up on YouTube. In this one Shaw talks about the spiritual connection he believes he has with Dorothy as well as how his book talks have lead to more informants coming forward to him as well as synchronicity. Dorothy Kilgallen was, back in the day, one of the few women journalists who had national, even international respect. As a writer of news she brought her reader to the trials she attended. Thought of as one of the What's My Line television show panelists, she was hot on the trail of the JFK Assassination story.
I received a message from Shaw asking me/us to help the cause of reopening the case of Dorothy Kilgallen's death.
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