Resolve To Evolve

Simply put, effective and productive communication means...

---(-)-> Understanding that communication means receiving input not just giving output
---(-)-> Possessing thorough knowledge of facts to support your position
---(-)-> Being able to see things from the other person's point of view
---(-)-> Having an open mind to consider possibilities other than what you believe
---(-)-> Conveying your thoughts in a way that is easy to understand
---(-)-> Pursuing opportunities to learn
---(-)-> Making a solution the goal, not being right

The Life We Live Comes From The Choices We Make

How did I forget music? Stoned.
Word Cloud by Wordle

"The blogosphere is my sandbox where I go to play."
---Kilroy_60

I learned early in life to work hard and take pride in doing a good job. Also that working is easier when I'm not deprived of time to play.

Another lesson I learned was that with freedom comes responsibility and that breaking the rules has a price. Of course if you're willing to pay there's no reason not to stray.

It became apparent early on that conformity would never be my strong point and that should not be something about which I feel concern.

There was emphasis put on the fact that relationships are something to be held in high regard and not be be taken for granted.

I'm not especially interested in most of the websites that fall in the category of social media. I'm quite comfortable and enjoy spending time in the blogosphere.

The one social media site that captured my attention and held my interest at this point is StumbleUpon, most likely because of it's similarity to blogging. Beyond that, most of what I have to deal with is related to work I do with clients and I have some associates I lean on for that.

Every now and then someone asks what attracts me to blogging or what I find enjoyable about it. On both counts the best answer would be, making a human connection.

I was thoughtful in crafting the header and the about me section in the sidebar of this blog. There should be no doubt what I'm all about, what I think or how I feel.

There was a time when nobody was reading Fear and Loathing - The Gonzo Papers. I've had more readers at times and less readers at other times. Having readers, I can say without qualification, makes blogging more fun.

As for being popular or looked at as prominent, neither are important to me and I couldn't care any less. What is important, the only things that are important, are to have fun and to feel my time has been well spent.

I've had the good fortune to connect with people who are like minded and with people who are very different, yet open-minded enough that we're able to get along. That combination unquestionably make blogging both more interesting and more fun.

I welcome your comments on any post, whether you agree or not with whatever position I've taken. You may or may not enjoy what I've presented, there's no accounting for taste.

Comments are moderated, because I'm not attracted to processed, canned meat and I am not running ads that invite people to visit other websites. Not unless they're sites I choose to recommend.

The first three years have been anything but boring, that's the one thing I don't expect to change. Ciao.

It's Important To Get Off On The Right Foot

I was checking out the news at Yahoo and couldn't help but notice the advertising.

Yes, I remembered my first day at Park College as though it were yesterday. I'd never seen so many beautiful women in one place, ripe for the plucking.

My parents were out of town on a trip planned before we knew when I'd be able to move into the dorm.

So there I was with my buddy Doc, a pharmacology student at Duquesne, getting the lay of the land before we started unpacking the car.

The first thing I did at Park was to shoot a few games of pinball in the snack bar. I won the best of five so we were off to find the nearest bar, and Doc was buying.

A few pitchers of Iron City Beer later it was time to walk back to school and move in. He bought a couple six packs for me to take back to the room; we figured they wouldn't be around long enough to worry about getting warm.

We got off the elevator, each of us with an open bottle, started down the hall and then, we heard it...

Candy came from out on the Island
In the back room she was everybody's darlin',
But she never lost her head
Even when she was givin' head,
She says, Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
said, Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side,
And the colored girls go ---
Doo, do doo, do doo, do do do...

Yes, Lou Reed was booming out my new dorm room and I was ready to rock.

Park was my roommate's fifth college, so he knew to come early to pick the bed, desk and closet that he wanted. Better yet, he bought a refrigerator and it was fully stocked with booze!!

The second day at Park kicked off with me waking up in the bed of a ballerina. Yes indeed, there was ripe fruit on the low branches and I had a voracious appetite.

We had a delicious breakfast. Then, went to the cafeteria.

As it turned out this that would set the tone for what turned out to be a interesting trek through the world of academia.

It Had Been A Long Time Since I Beat A Redneck Senseless

St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays.

Saturday night I went out with The Master Baiter and Spear Chucker to get a head start and didn't roll back in until this morning.

Spear Chucker had my copy of Kingdom of Fear, that I mentioned recently I was going to "borrow" now that I'm finished with Fear And Loathing In America.

He's another friend that I've had since college (at UPM). He picked up the name Spear Chucker partially because the African American surgeon in M*A*S*H had that name, but moreso because he went to school on a track and field scholarship and threw the javelin.

It's always an adventure visiting Spear Chucker because he's an urban farmer and stays on top of the latest and greatest methods to maximize both yield and quality in a confined space.

We were at his place sampling the latest crop for a few hours then headed out to a bar.

We'd been drinking Irish Car Bombs for a few hours, in the back room, when, at one point, I pulled out a fat, tight one. Spear Chucker had come up with a hybrid that was the most beautiful shades of green and gold with burgandy hairs running through it.

I'm puffing on it when this redneck walks over to the table. He says to me, We don't like your kind here, hippy. Take your mar-a-jew-juan-a and your nigger friend and get out.

Speak Chucker looks at me and says, Did he call you a hippy? I took a long draw on the joint, then flicked ashes on the floor. I said to The Master Baiter, did he call you a nigger? He, in turn, says to the redneck, Did you call me a nigger?

Don't make me tell you again, the red neck says to me.

No need for that, I told him, you've said enough. I motioned to his six friends standing in the doorway. Are they with you?, I asked him as I was getting up.

Damn straight, he said.

It was at that point I kneed him in the nuts and dropped him with a good right hand to the chin.

Two County Sheriff's deputies came right about the time we finished beating the living shit out of the seven of them. It felt good, especially, to give the loudmouth a good stomping.

The only person better than your attorney to have by your side in a bar fight is a black belt. Spear Chucker's specialty is TaeKwon-Do.

The Master Baiter talked for awhile off in a corner with the deputies. I told the pigfuckers, knowing the deputies were in earshot, that if they had anything else to say to me or my nigger friend the next beating we gave them wouldn't be so mild.

All seven of them were a bloody mess; none of them had much to say to the deputies. It doesn't look like there's anything we can do, the lead deputy said, and advised us to take a cab home.

They had a good laugh when I said we'd taken a cab there to avoid having any problems.

The other thing they advised us was to take care of the bar owner so there wasn't any trouble. The Mater Baiter is friends with the owner; he wrote him a good check and all was well when we headed out.

Wisdom Of The Ages

I am a Muslim and a Hindu and a Christian and a Jew and so are all of you. - Mohandas K. Gandhi

beliefnet
Inspiration. Spirituality. Faith.

This is, without question, one of my favorite sites on the web. Also, I think, one of the most important.

Spirituality, to me, is at the heart of all things that are good. I have nothing against religion. That said, I believe, much as anything religious fanaticism tears at the very fabric of society and brings forth the worst ills of man.

A great feature on the site is daily OFFERINGS. You can sign up for any of 23 free newsletters; some delivered daily, others weekdays and still others three or five times a week.

I get newsletters on...

• Buddhist Wisdom
• "From The Masters"
  
• Your Peace Of Mind
  
• Health and Happiness
• "GLOW"
  

Let there be no doubt, the distinction between spirituality and religion is huge.

"If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being."
- Jerry Falwell

This is, I believe, a topic that should be given high priority. Especially with consideration of the Presidential campaign currently underway in the United States.

"Let us be done with being anti-anybody. Let us become pro-Christ and pro-love! Let us stop talking against this person and that, this nation and that. Let us begin to live Christianity!" - Catherine Doherty

The undo influence of the zealots on the religious right, leading up to and throughout the reign of President George W. Bush, has been extremely harmful. That is something that can not be ignored. Due diligence by the rest of the population is necessary to stop any further damage from occurring.

"Evangelical Christianity, as everyone knows, is founded upon hate, as the Christianity of Christ was founded upon love" - H.L. Mencken

Photograph by Kilroy_60

Finally, I'm going mobile!

It's been impossible finding a mobile device to adequately fulfill my needs. I've gone back and forth so many times...do I get a high end cell, a blackberry or an iPhone?

Finally, I found exactly what I need! I have to send a big shout out to the National Rifle Association for all its help!!

This is not a Pay Per Post sponsored ad. 8-)

October Is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Support Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Encourage a woman who is important to you to do self examination regularly and to get a yearly mammogram.

I'm pleased to report that both TheSpecialOne and TheRedhead passed their tests with flying colors. After they did their self exams and went for mammograms I gave them both a final checkup. You can't be too thorough after all, eh.

Educational Resources...
---(-)-> Breast Cancer.org
---(-)-> Susan G. Komen For The Cure
---(-)-> National Cancer Institute - Breast Cancer Page
---(-)-> MedicinePlus - Breast Cancer
---(-)-> National Breast Cancer Foundation
---(-)-> MayoClinic.com - Breast Cancer
---(-)-> WebMD Breast Cancer Health Center

You Have To Pay To Play...

You have to pay to play. I've been playing quite a bit of late which means I have a lot of work to do.

For the past few days I've been going through marathon meetings with BobTheBuilder.

Normally I wouldn't work with a real estate developer/builder. My experience in that arena has been largely negative.

Most recently it was when a friend was having a home built by ConscienceDecreasesProfit. Let's say I had to take somewhat drastic measures to get the last in a series of problems solved. Interesting how things work out when a person has the choice of writing a check or losing their ability to do so.

In any case, back to the point of this post. MarthaStewartLite referred me to BobTheBuilder. He's young, enthusiastic and ambitious. A good combination; he's not raping people to feather his nest yet.

There's a place I like to go for working lunches. They serve breakfast all day which is always a plus for me. Another thing that I like is once the lunch crowd files out it's empty most days until dinner time rolls around.

We started early and worked late in terms of lunch. In fact, I was there long enough to have two breakfast and dessert. On our way out today I left my mark...


I've intended to get back to writing here. Unfortunately, or fortunately based on how you look at it, I've had other things attracting the focus of my attention. Look forward to get back to knocking out some commentary soon.

Cheers!

Awash In A Tsunami Of Pleasure

I had TheSpecialOne purring this morning. And screaming. And playfully begging; in her intoxicating, incredibly convincing way... Funny how one can be saying please, when you both know who is in total control at that moment. Needless to say, we both know it's not me.


Yes, a tsunami of pleasure engulfed us a few times this morning. Which made riding that wave this afternoon all the more enjoyable.


In between I made her smile. She loves monarch and tiger swallowtail butterflies. Which made me very happy to be able to shoot these photographs for her...


She loved them so much that we made sure she had an orgasm for each of the shots I got. An enticement to keep me on the ball she said. I'm looking forward to coming closer to 30 next time around.

Kidnapped...

I've spent the past week with TheSpecialOne. It's always that much more enjoyable when we go to her house.

Taking photographs is never a priority when I visit her. That is, photographs I share with anyone else.

She had her home built on a wooded lot; the sort of place that should have a Hidden Drive sign along the road. When we're there we're secluded from the rest of the world; which is something we both enjoy very much.

I love it when she's in the mood to have her photograph taken. Left to me, I would surely photograph her much more frequently. I think doing it as we do, at her choosing, makes it that much more enojoyable for both of us.

These are two shots I can share, the only two, from our most recent outing. The first walking up the driveway. The second a path on the side of the house, going around to the back deck.


Needless to say I've devoted next to no time to blogging this past week. While she's slept I started the newest edition of A Hitchhiker's Guide To The Blogosphere; that's a project I enjoy. Other than that, she was intrigued by the virtual DNA test I took. I'll get back to blogging this week.

That will have to be it for now. I hear the shower running.

Cheers!

The Man In The Mirror

I am what I am. I don't see that changing.


My personalDNA Report

An update on the experiment...
8:57 AM, 9 August
Given 138/Received 97

An Unexpected Visit...

Welcome friends, old and new.

I've been wading through The Writer's Nook and have a ton of material I will be posting. Most of it has no real timeliness so it should be an adventure in blogging.

It was my expectation to have a different sort of post published at this point. That train of thought, for the moment, has been derailed.

Having a friend visit that I wasn't expecting isn't an especially unusual occurrence. Anyone who would do that, of course, knows that I may or may not be available.

I don't have a friend from Italy knock on my door very often that I was not expecting though.

Saturday morning I was having breakfast with TheSpecialOne. We had gotten up early and lingered long in bed. It was slow and gentle and went on and on, over and over.

Sorry, that thought lingered a bit longer than I intended...

Anyway, we were having breakfast and my cell phone rang. It was my buddy Salvatore. Little did I know he was calling from down the block. His wouldn't be the first car whose tire I shot out pulling into the driveway when I didn't recognize it. So, he knew to call first when he had a rental.

Sal's in from Sicily for a month. Which, needless to say, means it's going to be an adventure. I'm looking forward to the package he sent that will follow.

TheSpecialOne has been a wonderful hostess. We'd been drinking grand mimosas when Sal came. She didn't mind sharing. As it worked out we went through three more bottles of champagne and smoked several fat, tight ones he had brought along.

Later that afternoon she came with the makings for subs and homemade pizza. Sal was pleased when he saw her pull out Citterio meats and Lioni fresh mozzarella. She even went to an Italian bakery for Cannoli and had her friend who owns a restaurant make up some pizza crusts. An amazing woman TheSpecialOne is.

I'm looking forward to returning the favor...and knocking on Sal's door in Sicily some time down the road.

Join Me At The Seashore

This project began after TheSpecialOne and I had gone to Cape Cod. It was and remains one of the best weeks I've had in my life.

Recently I had the good fortune to find my way to Cape Cod Lighthouse. It's a new site; only 13 posts published so far. The content, I think, is outstanding.

Visiting this blogger has brought back wonderful memories of that week. I'm now, all the more, looking forward to going back. Here's a handful of my favorite shots of the sea from that week...


Photographs by Kilroy_60

The Changing Face Of The Writer's Refuge

TheSpecialOne likes to think of me as intelligent. I find that funny considering that she has a doctorate.

My intelligence, or lack thereof, aside...she enjoys seeing me do manual labor. Perhaps it brings her some sort of primal pleasure.

I'm not saying intelligence and manual labor are at odds. At the same time it wouldn't be a stretch to say I worked to develop certain skills so I didn't have to do that kind of work. I'd rather pay someone who enjoys it...or is skilled at it.

My most recent project has been shoveling mulch. I don't know how much she had delivered, but it came in a small trailer and took up one side of the driveway. I've been using a snow shovel to scoop it up and carry it to the backyard. Then she's been doing the landscaping.

I've always loved getting TheSpecialOne hot and sweaty. She makes me enjoy getting sweaty working. Especially when we get around to the part where we share the shower. Given the payoff(s), I don't mind manual labor at all.

Here's a look at the changing face of The Writer's Refuge...


A couple days after first publishing this I noticed, you can't tell anything about what changes there are. Here's the most recent picture; and a post for some real perspective!

Photographs by Kilroy_60

It Is What It Is

"rabato"
a jacksonpollock.org creation
by Kilroy_60

I've met a lot of bloggers over the past year. There's one thing about living in the Blogosphere that's the same as the real world; that's the intricacies of relationships.

Some people cross your path, sharing space for only a moment, and then disappear. Some remain as acquaintances and others become friends. In both worlds friends are one of the most valuable things you can have. Unfortunately, also in both worlds some you think are friends betray or abandon you.

There are opportunities to make a difference in someone's life. Or the life of their blog. When you can seize upon that, to make the most of the opportunity to help it's a great feeling.

It's not my style to do anything for anyone in order to get something in return. If I want something I ask straight out. There's no backdooring it. I'm fine with yes or no; being up front is all I expect.

That said, it's amazing how you can go back at times and find a person with whom you've been involved telling a story which directly relates to your involvement, yet you are nowhere to be seen. There are people who are blessed with the ability to rewrite history and have no qualms about it. It's good for them I suppose, it must make their life easier.

As for me, I say that's life. And life is what it is.