May 23, 2011

• 7th Xanga Celebration #4

  A Selection of My Comments from the Past

  This is Part 2 of my 7th Xangaversary Celebration selection of the comments I’ve left on Xanga. The first entry posted on May 11th contained recent comments, and this one contains older comments going back to 2009. (In case anyone notices, and I’m sure nobody pays THAT much attention, this is Entry 4 of the 7th Xangaversary Celebration, and I posted Entry 5 already. That’s cause  this one was still private, and I forgot to post it.) I’ll have two more entries before Memorial Day, which is the actual date of the 7th Xangaversary. My last 7th Celebration entry is going to be something special for my readers.

   

  I try never to leave “rude commentz”, but a couple of timz, er, I mean, times, I have disappointed a couple of Xangans when one thought in a long comment dealing with many entries on their blogs hit a bad chord, and the perceived negativity was what was addressed. Both times, I was sort of shocked. Believe it or not, I write so much, and so quickly, pretty much stream of conscious as the thoughts are coming out of my head, that I might forget what I wrote almost immediately after writing it. I apologize to anyone to whom I may have left a less than positive, uplifting, or otherwise friendly comment. As a human, I am prone to make human mistakes, but never do I ever wish to spread obvious negativity , malicious behavior, or “rude commentz” in the Xangasphere.

  

  Tuesday 10 Aug 2010
  ampersands-anonymous.
  “Mountains To Climb” my Project Positive contribution

  Dear Kayla,

  I know I’ve seen your username/profile in the “Top Blogs” etc, and in comments on some of the blogs I find myself reading, and I might even have paid you a visit in the past, but I don’t remember having ever connected with you, so possibly I never left a comment. The reason I’m visiting your blog today is to recommend it for the Project Positive campaign. This morning I vowed to visit each entry posted on the Project Positve blog, and believe it or not, you’re the last one I’m visiting. I used to get around Xanga a lot, but lately I’ve been posting sporadically, and not even really keeping up with my “Xanga friends’ and readers.

  This post sent shivers down my spine. I wrote an entry (one of a few which was actually a “top blogpost”) advising would be suicides to consider the possibilites inherent in life, from the viewpoint of an aging old bald guy who has suffered depression, and was once suicidal, but who has lived long enough to really appreciate the world with all it’s problems and wonders. I will forego supplying a link (which I always do because this is the internet), because I dont’ want to take anything away from your post. 

  Perhaps Mitchell couldn’t climb the final mountain. I can sense that Tammy wished he would have found the power and the strength, but respects his decision to give up the struggle. Possibly because she’s his sister, instead of a parent or a child, her viewpoint is shudderingly valid.

  And the fact that Mitchell is sort of speaking to you beyond the grave is wonderfully spooky, yet positive. Sometimes the words someone wrote make an impact. Now those words exist in HTML documents in the cybersphere, as slowly but surely, paper letters are disappearing from our drawers and our lives. I’m glad you kept this letter, and I’m glad you posted it online for us all to see. God bless you and Mrs. Tammy, and the spirit of Mitchell, which still exists in the Universal Mind.

  Thank you for spreading your positive thoughts, words, and memories around Xanga. Positively wonderful!

  Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

  Saturday, 07 August 2010
  Eden (shining-garnet)
  If I Ever Moved...
  
  Dear Eden,

  Comment #1:

  I’ll start here, so if you’re not paying attention, you will miss my stream of consciousness. First of all, thank you for dropping by my blog and leaving a comment on my latest ElectricPoetry post. I’ve been writing poetry since I was 14, so when I do set the virtual pen to paper anymore, I have to be careful that I’m not “repeating myself” except, in fact, when I want to do so. I notice you’ve posted poetry here on your blog, so I’ll comment the poem when I read it.

  Since you asked, my family moved from Idaho, where I was born, to California, when I was only five years old. So when people ask, I always say that I’m a Californian. I’ve never lived anywhere else and I don’t ever want to. I think Southern California is the perfect place to live. (If one can afford it, it’s quite expensive to live here.) I live in the South Bay, close to Los Angeles, the beach, and the mountains.

  Right after I graduated from high school, my parents decided to move, mainly to allay my mother’s fears that our area was going downhill. Mom was relieved, but both my sister and brother were still in high school. Brother looked forward to moving, because he didn’t have the stigma of having to take classes with teachers who constantly compared him to me, but Sister was a junior, and had to spend her senior year at an entirely new high school.

  So I feel ya.

  Thanks again for the visit and the friend request.

  Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

  Tuesday, June 29, 2010
  Emily (boureemusique)
  I’m still thinking about sustainability.

  Dear Emily,
  I guess I knew coming from you the link to “doomsday scenarios” would go a solid news outlet like the Nation website and not some crackpot theorist.

  The Pentecostal church I attended in the early 70s was too doom and gloom for me, although they had us all being “raptured” (not killed by dinosaurs but taken up to live with the Lord in heaven) before the 7 years of Tribulation set in. I guess that’s when the earth’s sustainability really starts to go. Oh, not to mention the Antichrist and the gog magog war and a lot of other neat Pentecostal Christian scenarios including beasts with multiple heads and real nasty people on horseback. (but that just could be metaphor)

  When I was a kid I thought we’d be living in space stations or on the moon by now. A lot of sci fi has the earth being ravaged by pollution, and even in the stuff written BEFORE Earth Day 1970. Mankind always goes to live in splendor on a planet/moon of his choosing, and if it isn’t a green rainforest type moon (like the moon of Pandora shown in Avatar) then at least man makes a neat indoor mall for himself. After all, we only need our 500 million cable channels and access to Facebook and we’ll be okay. If we’re lucky, we’ll learn how to cultivate our crops indoors, like in Silent Running.

  We’ll even have cloning and robotics to prolong our lives.

  And then there’s the Battlestar Galactica scenario, where the earth gets completely destroyed and we man hundreds of spaceships and search for greener pastures somewhere in the atmosphere. But there were robots fighting humankind in Galactica, weren’t there? Oh, there are always robots fighting us in sci fi. It’s just a common part of the genre. No thanks to Issac Asimov. He tired to make the robots peaceful and give them their own set of “laws”.

  Those spaceships run on fuel, though, don’t they?

  Oh yeah, Zephram Cochrane invents the warp drive in about 60 years! Then we won’t need any pesky fuel. Hope the earth sticks around long enough. I doubt I’ll be here in 60 years. Unless that cloning thing works out.

  Michael F. Nyiri ,poet, philosopher, fool

  ( a bit of levity for a serious subject this afternoon,)

  
  
  Thursday, 06 May 2010
  Michael (ro-ad808)
  It Adds Up

  Dear Michael,

  I buy the same things every week, so I hardly take a list anymore. (And I’ve only been buying groceries for a year. I used to eat in restaurants when I could afford it.)  Usually I have a $50-60 week followed by a $20-30 week, and sometimes I’ve got enough stocked that I don’t even need to go to market. I spent $70.00 last week, so should only spend around $30.00 this week.

  When I buy rum for my “energy bombers” (I fall asleep too easily and am now “partying” with 20 and 40 year olds on Fridays, so I mix rum with Monster M-80 to stay up) I usually end up paying more for groceries, and I buy the $8.00 a bottle type and not Bacardi.

  Execpt for the frozen foods, your list looks a lot like mine. I buy lots of cheese and deli meats for lunchtime sandwiches, and I eat far too much Rice a Roni (10 for $10) however I love the stuff, both alone and mixed with meat.

  Sorry I haven’t been by your blog a lot lately. I went from not being on Xanga hardly at all, to posting somewhat regularly, and now I seem to be getting larger amounts of comments for some reason. I promise to come back a little later and attempt to catch up on some back posts. Last bit of big news if memory serves that I read was that your thesis was approved.

  Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

  
  Wednesday, 05 May 2010
  Suzanne (taintedmemories87)
  Enough with the shiit already!

  Dear Suzanne,

  Thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving such an encouraging comment. As a “xangaholic” I’m sure you’ve noticed that in the last couple of years or so, the “xangalebrities” will grab onto a subject, and promote it through the inbox, which further fuels what I’ve heard called the “bandwagon”. In the past, we just had blogthings and writing prompts, but now sometimes the Xangasphere has become a big gossip rag disguised as a social networking site.

  For the most part I stay away from “the drama”. I’ve been blogging here for almost 6 years now, and I present my “art and literature” on my blog. I did feel compelled to write another of my many contemplations on death. I just turned 57, and as I wrote in my entry, one of my best friends died  of cancer a little less then two years ago. I always try to be optimistic on my blog, and I look for the silver lining in every cloud.

  Internet discourse goes in waves, and the current wave concerns this  blogger (whom I’ve never read) who apprarently “faked” his suicide online. I believe this has happened at least two other times here on Xanga if memory serves.

  And each time it happens, there’s a firestorm of blogs about it.

  As you know, next week something else will happen. Dan (thetheologianscafe) who has the largest readership on Xanga, will promote and write about it, and then everyone else will follow.

  Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosohpher, fool

  
  
  Wednesday, 30 December 2009
  Mel (ruftyroo)
  One Life: Packed up. RIP Nan.

  Dear Mel,

  I’ve now memorized the fact that we’re 8 hours apart, so it must be a little after 8pm as I write this on my lunch hour. First, a reply to your comment about “abridging” my posts for the end of the year “Best Posts” entry. I think I mentioned in an earlier comment that it took me 2 hours to compose the post, mainly cause I had to keep paring down the “excerpts”. Most people tell me I write the longest blogs on Xanga, so it was a chore.

  Yours are a respectable length themselves.

  As I read about your last visit to your Nan’s room above, I couldn’t help but think about disposing of my roommate’s “life” in the weeks after his passing in Summer 08. His brother and sister in law came over one afternoon and proceeded to create big piles in my front yard. One for things they wanted to keep, one for things they thought could be disposed of, and one for eventual pickup by the Salvation Army. This was a Sunday and the charity organizations were closed. I told them this when they arrived.

  After about four hours, there were three big piles of junk on my front lawn. (I kept Joel’s record and cd collection, which are boxed up in storage right now.) Abruptly, the brother and his wife had to leave. I spent the next three hours, alone, tossing the disposables, and bagging and boxing the stuff for charity, which didn’t get picked up till two days later! I remember thinking how easy it is to get rid of “a life”. Within a week, you wouldn’t have known he’d even existed.

  Except of course, in our memories. And this is where your Nan resides now.

  Of course you will always have the scarf to remind you of her scent.

  This is a very well written piece, I just have to mention.

  In friendship,

  Michael

  (for some reason, I don’t feel right signing my whole signature on your blog. Hope you don’t mind.)

  
  
  Tuesday, 08 December 2009
  Jen (bodyheartmindsoul)
  lately i’ve been struggling with my abortion

  Dear Jen,

  I’m visiting you because you replied to a comment I left on Dan’s post. Of the entries you have on your front page, this one stood out, so I will comment here. I hope you notice when someone comments on a “back entry.”

  I just reread my comment on Dan’s post. (I am writing lots of comment right now, cause one of my posts got featured, and I have a thing about “returning” all my comments.) I really was rather morose in my response. I was riffing on the blog entry to which I linked. I don’t know if you read it or just the comment. I usually try to be as upbeat as I can during the Christmas holiday. A lot of my good buddies have passed on, and I sometimes feel quite lonely. I really try not to let this show, but I’m also a bit “manic depressive” and I write a lot, so, well, hope you get the picture. Actually, every time I seem to whine about my fate on my blog, I do get lots of love. So please don’t feel sad.

  Well, since I’m commenting here, I want to address this post. I’ll tell you a little story. When I was in my early 20s, my mother had a stroke, which paralyzed her for the next two years, before her death. My father died after his 13th heart attack, and I think the stress of trying to keep working to support the family and still visiting mom at the hospital took it’s eventual toll. Sis got  married soon after Dad passed away. I was 21. She was 19. She had been going with Mark for two years. I gave her away at the wedding.

  A few months later, I was really trying to find answers in life. I became a Pentecostal Christian. (leaving the Baptist church, where I was raised.) My sister got pregnant. She wasn’t ready at that point for children. She asked me for money for an abortion. I was incensed. I not only wouldn’t give her the money. I told her she was killing a child, all the “pro life” bullshit before it was popular.

  Eventually, she got the money from our brother. Later on, she gave birth to two wonderful children. Uterine cancer took away her chance to have any more, but she is a cancer survivor, and she didn’t want any more. Now that I’m a little older and wiser, I am ashamed I didn’t give her the money for the abortion. I’ve told her so.

  So don’t worry about it. You didn’t do anything you should be ashamed of, or have second thoughts about. I’m fully in favor of “pro choice’ now.

  Again, sorry my comment made you sad. I really try to be more positive in my responses. But it is true that I think it might be days before someone noticed. It’s a bitch getting old, esp. when you’re single and have lost a lot of your buds. My best friend and roommate died last year after a four year battle with cancer.

  Happiest of Holidays to you!

  Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

  
  Monday, November 09, 2009
  Socrates (socrates-cafe)
  The Nature of Truth – a dialog
  
  Hey Soc,

  As I was driving my chariot to work this morning, I was pondering the notion of time. We know geologic and biological time exists. Mountains fall. Rivers rise. People’s skin get wrinkled and they eventually die. But if we didn’t have clocks and calendars, which we humans invented, the “daily rituals” wouldn’t tell us that we were aging at all. If not for the fact that geology and biology tell us so, our conceptions might be similar at age 8 as they are at age 80. The truth of either of these “times” is the same, but the circumstances are not. If I close my eyes, I might believe I’m still 20. I don’t seem to think any differently. I’m still “me”. I’m certainly not the “me” that I was at 20. Physically, I look different, and biologically, I am different. I’ve gained experience, so my mind is even different. However, I’m still “me”. And that part of me that recognizes this also recognizes that the truth of existence carries on, cycle after cycle, and I don’t really change. It’s only the biology and geology, and the perceptions I harbor, which change.
  Ergo, truth is entirely subjective, and mass subjectivity gives it it’s objectivity. It’s what the bearer of thought proclaims it to be. Truth is in the mind, and of course the mind is not biological. It isn’t even spiritual. It is “all encompassing”. The cycles keep repeating, and if we don’t watch them, we feel as if we are perpetually at the same point, and of the same mind.

  At this point, my chariot brought me to work, and I had to start yet another cyclical routine.
  Truth is not merely what we see or experience. It is what we know in our minds to be true. We can be fooled, of course, and this accounts for misconception.

  Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

  

  (Images in this entry obtained from web searches. Speaking of commenting, I may be pretty absent this week, after having been quite active for the last couple of months. Another big project is going on at work,and I’m probably going to be working 12 hour days this week. I may not be able to take the time to “return my comments.”

  • 10:31 am
  • 8 Comments