Home of the "Little Known Blogger"
The unsolicited, unreasoned, uninformed, unapologetic opinions of Rev. Joe Dirt
yeah I know you did not ask!
Every look at a baby picture, a childhood picture of some adult you know? The pictures, frequently, reveal a cute, engaging person with bright, shiny eyes full of hope.
Then you think of these folks as adults and their lives as adults, and think what the hell happened.
Life should come with warning labels.
Danger Will Robinson Danger… I fell down the YouTube rabbit hole on this one. Just a word to the wise.
Okay, I am a Johnny-come-lately to this global phenomena, but here I am. This really put a smile on my face, and a gladness in my heart. It became meditative after a while. For me it was a reminder that we are all just one people… perhaps it is time we started acting that way.
If you have some time, put “jerusalema dance challenge” into your YouTube search box. While I didn’t understand the language they were singing, the music is beautiful. The original language is isiZulu, a language out of South Africa. As my dive into the rabbit hole deepened, I found versions in a couple of other languages.
Here is a link to the English translation of Jerusalema from isiZulu
What really interested me was the dance challenges from around the world. I am including a video that compiled many of these dances. However, if you do the YouTube search, the results will have you scrolling for pages… which I did.
Before you watch the mix of dance challenges from around the world here is a link to the official music video of the song: Master KG – Jerusalema [Feat. Nomcebo] (Official Music Video) As I re-watched this video it strikes me it has a subtle anti-drug message.
How South Africa’s ‘Jerusalema’ Became a Global Hit Without Ever Having to Be Translated
I apologize if you too get lost in this technological rabbit warren, I just really enjoyed it.
And so it goes.
yeah I know you did not ask!
I am currently watching a Great Courses series (we have a streaming subscription) called: Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica Revealed. I was utterly fascinated by the unit on Mayan math. They used a based 20 system and only needed 3 symbols to represent all the possible numbers. It was a positional system like our decimal system and unlike Roman numerals. The professor said the joke was that they counted on their fingers and their toes. He then reinforced that it was a joke and went on to say that no one was quite sure why they came up with a base 20 system.
Obviously we all work with base 10, more or less daily. As a programmer I worked extensively with a base 16 system of math and symbology. I occasionally also worked directly in base 8 and base 2.
All which started me thinking about an Okie I once knew who invented a base 21 system. Of course, he was skinny dipping at the time he had this brain storm.
To state the obvious, race continues to be fractious subject in this country and worldwide. It has all too often in history, including recent history, morphed into a reason for genocide. In my conversations with folks in Central and South America, I find interesting their perplexity with how racist a country the United States is. They tend not see skin color as a reason to exclude, minimize or even hate another person… then I think of the history of many of these countries and how they have mistreated their indigenous populations and continue to mistreat them. And racism becomes a story without end.
I forget what I was reading or listening to, but whatever it was, it claimed that Jews and Italians were not considered “white” until very recently. So to Google I went to research that statement a bit. I stumbled across this Pew Research article listing the race question on all census forms since 1790. I found it interesting.
We just celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day this third Monday of January , the 17th, which started me thinking about an anecdote I have been telling for years.
In the fall of 1983, much against the desires and better judgment of my now ex-spouse, I weaseled – and weasel is the operative word – my way back into her abode after a very long separation. I don’t remember exactly how long this particular separation had been, probably somewhere around 18 months. While we stayed together, more or less, for another dozen years, the marriage had been a tumultuous relationship nearly from day one. At one point in my life I spent a lot of time ruminating Continue reading “Strange Bedfellows”
yeah I know you did not ask!
Señora and I were together in my pick-em-up truck this chilly morning, running errands. I’m not sure how it got started, but we got into a playful contest trying to out “smart-ass” each other. After a few minutes of this Señora threw her hands in the air towards the headliner of my vehicle mirthfully conceding, “you win, you are king of smart-asses.”
All of which got me to wondering, does that make me the better smart-ass or the worse smart-ass?
Inquiring minds want to know, and me too.
I see the above sign often around the St. Louis area. Sometimes instead of Student is reads Permit. It just a small cautionary signal to other drivers about an inexperienced driver who may need a little slack. Sometimes I have wanted one with the not so original saying: “Please Be Patient, I’m from out of town”
So I started wondering if that they made such signs/bumper stickers for “Senior Drivers” as it might be a good gift idea for someone I am intimately acquainted with. No drum roll please, they do.
Do I need to put one on all three vehicles, I drive all of them differently? I pick and chose my places, but I drive my Miata, well, like a sports cars. I drive my Tacoma fairly staidly, and Señora’s Outback even more so. I about have the leaving the blinker on for miles and miles down pat. I am not so prone to push right on red like I used to. I’ve recently quit looking at speed limits simply as suggestions. Wonder if I could get an insurance discount if I had one of these on each of our vehicles. Or maybe I should just be content that I am still driving at my advanced age…
Of course, I might need another sign that reads “I brake for rest stops.”
And so it goes.
Robin has a very good friend, Viki, who is an artist. An example of her art would be an older van that she bought, and then decorated the entire vehicle with her amazing art. To see the van coming down the street is a real show stopper, it definitely grabs your attention. Viki and her husband Tom live in a very nice house, the yard of which falls sharply away to a small stream. Generally the stream has a very low level of water and flow, but certain times of the year it can get out of its bank. For this reason they have left a big swath of their property behind the fenced portion of their yard au naturale. Well sort of… Tom keeps the undergrowth Continue reading “Camp Wild, Camp Covid”
This just ain’t right…
Here it is the 31st of December, 2021 in St. Louis, Missouri and our daffodils are trying to come up. At least part of our yard of northern grasses looks like a pass with the mower would do it some good. The temperature currently is 65. Most of the week has been mild and rainy.
But wait, there is about to be a major beat down of our poor, confused flowers. Sunday is going to be a high of 24 with an overnight low of 10. Later in the week snow might be here with lows in the single digits.
I once heard someone describe Mother Nature as a pissed off biker bitch with a bad attitude. And yet we keep messing with her.
And so it goes.
FYI: I live in the 2nd Congressional District of Missouri, a very conservative district that gave us such luminaries as former Representative Todd “Legitimate Rape” Atkins. Ann Wagner is of the same ilk.
I am not quite sure how my phone number ended up in Rep. Ann Wagner’s texting file, but it did. A text from Wagner popped up the other day, and when I saw who it was my feeling was very similar to one I had when a gal I dated one time would not stop calling me and texting me. Obviously, I can block their number, see if their “STOP” option really works, just automatically delete them, but I would rather get a restraining order. I am doing pretty good though, generally when I see Ann Wagner’s name I go on an obscenity filled rant that has folks running for the hills. So far I have refrained.
Wagner’s text had a link to a survey requesting constituents’ opinions. “Well,” I thought, “she wants my opinion, I’ll be glad to give her a piece of my mind!” I opened the link, and by the fourth question I was ready to throw my phone against the first hard object I encountered, not counting my head.
I truly found her survey offensive. The first few questions were waving red Continue reading “Ann Wagner, Always Disappointing”