CeeQue

Angels Angels Angels … I love that word, it has such a soft and gentle feel about it does`nt it? Most folk I reckon like this word because of everything it evokes in us. Hope.Help.Happiness.Safety.Comfort. I sometimes get the feeling that if you asked 100 people whether they believed in God and whether they believed in Angels, I reckon Angels might just win out? I reckon even the movies like Angels a lot, try to think of all the films with Angels(of all sorts of course!!) in them, I bet you can come up with a few, eh? Angels are everywhere in our various cultures/religions and they appear to give those who believe in them strength … What is your view on Angels? How do they appear to you to do their job? (assuming they are gainfully employed that is!!)

This is a small pic I took early mon. morning this week of a statue overlooking a motorway in the north east of England, at Gateshead. It is called the “Angel of the North” and was designed by sculptor Antony Gormley. It is a massive feat of building and is the most viewed piece of art in the country considering the amount of traffic going by! Take a look at the link to it above to gain a true appreciation of its size, my poor shot does it no justice, I was just pleased to be able to “grab” it thru` a car windscreen in atrocious weather! Clicking on it may take you to the large version at Flickr … hopefully…

Just thought I`d get this off my chest cos its been on it all day long, just to remember my son, James, aka Dredwerk, who passed over 6 years ago today…. Still seems like yesterday to me even though more and more water keeps passing under that bridge, time seems to hold little meaning at these junctures of causality. Strange thing March, hard to think sometimes of the family that passed over this month in the past…. strange coincidences abound here.. My dad passed on the 11th March, my son passed on the 21st and my dads sister, the bestist Auntie in the whole world passed on the 31st. All in March..10 days..10 days..10 days.. Am I the only one to think this strange?

God Bless them all, I know they are there, I know they are ok and in a whole other place of  consciousness … I will wait for my turn, “……. its just a little time”

A good blogging buddy, Ruby, has “tagged” me to do a “meme” type thing … and its a good `un too. I say a good `un because the subject matter involves books and the reading thereof and I have to admit, I would much prefer to read someone else`s “meme” on books than mine cos my reading seems to have moved away from books and into/onto the web more and more these days…. Still, I will answer this lovely question because it involves a coincidence the like of which is, yet again, most unusual… Anyway, I`ll digress for a mo to set up the “meme”. So, we have to state the rules of the game …

“1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.”

The thing is, I`ve been looking thru` a couple of my old books lately and really wanted to write about the earliest of them, “The Hidden Springs” by Renee Haynes, first published in 1961, an enquiry into extra-sensory perception. After looking at page 123 however decided against it. The reason? Well there was only 5 sentences in total on the whole damn page and I`d fill the entire blog up typing `em all out here!!!! Lots of commas and semicolons, very few full stops! Lol!!! So I turned to my mate Bill, Bill Gates that is and his 1999 book, Business @ The Speed Of Thought. Heres where the coincidence arises because unbeknown to me, I was up to page 130 at the time and quite literally had gone back to page 123 to refresh myself and had actually re-read 123 the day I read Ruby`s blog and found out I had been selected! Thats the real truth, unbelievable as it sounds…. So anyway, heres some nice short sweet sentences from Bill as he puts the worlds digital infrastructure to rights and firmly in its place!!

1. New Technology will simplify the TV interface.

2. Trying to record one or more programs at certain times and days remains frustratingly complex with analog systems.

3. Recording a show on one channel while you watch a different show on another may require you to swap the cables among your TV, video and set top box!

Hehe, I think they`re really great lines, how much trouble does this stuff cause us all, eh!? So theres my little offering on what I`ve been reading recently, so now I get to “tag” people!!! Yay!!! Like this bit, its all good, so if any of my victims have done this already or don`t wanna do it feel perfectly free to throw something at me, I just bet you won`t reach!

1. Lorri ! Voracious readerholic …

2. Bill ! C`mon, you know you want to?

3. Martha Mihaly

4. Deb Estep

5. Catherine

Thanks to Ruby once again for bringing this lovely idea to us!

I was looking around our good `ol interweb most of the day, looking at my favourite places (and playing my favourite games…ssshhh!) and reading my favourite blogs, most of which are listed down there on the right. So I end up wondering about the nature of things, well, everything really, …as you do…. and thought maybe I should have a breather from the heaviness-of-the-cosmos-on-a-sunday and go surfing-in-the-sea-of-normality for a change. So I click on my one of my all time favourite web-buttons, “Stumbleupon” and get taken straight back to the heaviness-of-the-cosmos-on-a-sunday routine! But I was so glad about it because this really does put us, humanity, our world-as-we-know-it, into serious perspective and though I have seen this sort of idea a few times before, I have never seen it done quite so simply and effectively as this. Take a look at this, see what you think,  Dick Hardt-Blame Canada  Make sure you scroll down and maybe read the comments, it really kinda knocks you for six. Two of the comments stood out to me, one person saying that from the smallest of the known atoms(quark) to the largest of our known stars we figure to be around the middle and the other, more disturbing one, saying that they thought all stars were mostly the same size….. Serious food for thought here methinks….

Ah well, tis January again, a new year starts, lots of folk seem to shift and move their thoughts and feelings around this time, new jobs, new ideas, new resolutions, how will it all go I wonder? Lots of folk I reckon are going to change something in their lives this year to better themselves and their own, its always a challenge. I remember when working I dreaded this time for a lot of reasons, my employer always looking to reduce costs at this time, it was like clockwork, no matter how good a year we had up to that time, it was always never quite good enough and so the belt-tightening routine came into play….and this remained a constant…every year. Its quite strange how this always comes into my mind at this time of the year. A series of actions, seen as a positive but almost always ending up as negative, a serious anomaly! Strange stuff eh? So, make your actions for this coming year positive-only-please, with no downside! Does this sort of thing happen in your workplace?

You will by now ( I hope!) have noticed the graphic? Click on it to find the reasons behind it, its all good and in the spirit of the new year I believe? Should you wish to use this graphic on your own blog/place then feel free to do so? I did it like this so you could add in a face underneath or something of relevance to you… If you want to do this but can`t or don`t know how then I`ll try it for you, just let me know?

So January never feels like the greatest of months to me, especially from the weather viewpoint, cos its horrendously grey and wet here! I got a bit of bad news too re. a memorial site I did for James at Respectance.com. It seems they had a server problem sometime in Nov. which ended up in them losing all the photos I had uploaded there so finding this out did`nt enamour me to the New Year too! Feel a bit gutted about it actually, so I asked them to take the rest down as without the pics it did`nt really mean a lot. I could have re-uploaded and done it all again but for some reason just could`nt bring myself to do it…. ah well, c`est la vie eh?

Edit : Just discovered that this post was written on “Blue Monday”, evidently our most depressing day of the year! How insane is that!? I`d never heard of the term being used to describe an actual day! (great song though….!) So is this a case for celebration?? Duh!

Here comes Christmas.. I really don`t know how I feel about Christmas anymore, its very strange. It used to be just the most greatest time of year to me but it is`nt anymore and in late November I start to dread the oncoming of the festive season. Yet it comes along, all the singing and dancing, good food and good cheer leading inevitably toward the start of another year …

Its been a time of great change this latter part of the year for me.. relationships of family members at an end, though at least not the friendship which is so important, not something I wish to “iron out” in public, though it has affected me in more ways than one… and so Christmas will be unlike the festive seasons of the few past years and though this is not necessarily a bad thing, it is just … different. Seems to me the older we get the more “routine” plays its part and moving out of it seems somehow … weird!

I was reading thru` my son`s last writings and came across a piece he wrote in 2001, he would have been 17 when he put this down and I thought it was a very inspiring piece of writing for his age and so I decided to publish it here, in entirety, for all to read and maybe take notice of this Christmas. I feel sure he would not mind, he has published several other pieces of writing similar to this on deviantArt so I feel very proud to be able to show this, for the first time, warts and all, on my own blog…..

” Prose No.1 version 1

comment: This is inspired by several people, writers and someone I think is a writer! Its not very good …..

“STOP, yes, STOP! I`d just like you to take a moment and reflect. Right now you`re sat somewhere reading this. Are you eating or drinking something you normally eat or drink? If so, have some slowly, feel the textures,smell the aromas, let your taste buds get a good taste. Something you don`t normally do … you eat and run. I think its about time we all sat back and realised what we have.

We`re cruising along in life not realising the potential we all have, each day. We fear whats to come tomorrow, we regret what was yesterday but we ignore today. And today you`ll go through what you felt yesterday and tomorrow.

Appreciate whats today, the potential you have. Make a change, stand up, and shout. Shout anything you like. Express yourself, tell people you love them, like friends and family. Step back from that computer, turn the tv off. Talk and appreciate people.

We take SO MUCH for granted, the air we breathe, food we eat, bus drivers, that sexy blonde at the local shop .. and family and friends. Over this Christmas spend as much time as possible with the things you love (or should love) as you just don`t know when its gonna get taken away from you….

And remember what the great John and Paul said …

“ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE”

in remembrance of George Harrison. “

So there you go, a few lovely words from my son for Christmas, we miss him terribly, especially at this time of the year, Christmas has never been the same since he left us and it just brings the pain back to the forefront every year. But we live with it now, we have to, there is`nt any choice in the matter. The pic above was sent to me soon after James passed by Jsampson and I took the liberty of adding in the pic of James and his “dred” icon, click on it to see it larger if you should wish. I am eternally grateful to jsampson for this tribute… So everyone who may be reading, have a great Christmas celebration and may this time, indeed, all  times, be filled with Peace and Love!

   Okay, so how weird and wonderful is this then! I wrote a kind of meaningless post some time ago about how funny it was to visit your own site while being visitor no. 6666 …. and I went and done it again! I just visited my own site and theres the number 7777! I`m sorry, but is this just me being completely daft about silly small things or what? You see, last time, at 6666, I thought it was a fun thing and actually thought to myself, maybe I should run a little competition to see who can hit the 7777 mark! The thing is, it most certainly gave me the impetus to write something again … and for that I`m thankful!

I do use my own blog to visit all my other blogging friends and read their posts, so I suppose I am on my own page maybe a coupla times a day but I thought WordPress did`nt count your own visits? Or is that only when you`re logged in? I never really thought about it too much though now I want to find out . So if any of my friends know about this please let me know? So how do you visit all the other places you like to read? Do you have like a zillion bookmarks/favourites or do you simply click links in your own blog? Actually, I`d really like to know this!? Weird or what?

Anyway, 7777, I like that number, it has a better feel than 6666..apart from being bigger of course! So what do we do with 8888? If I personally hit that I`m gonna have a heart attack, I kid you not!

I thought I would take the opportunity to just remind folk that here in blighty its the time of the year when we pay tribute to all the folk who fought in the greatest conflict in history. Its “Poppy Day” as I fondly remember it. I was`nt alive back then and know that most of us were`nt, the survivors of the Second World War are growing ever smaller simply because of age and the parades thru` the various towns and cities grows smaller in number accordingly so I write this “Lest we forget”…

I don`t want to write a huge tribute/memorial type of post, there are people out there far better than me at expressing this better, I just don`t want us to forget all who died in this conflict ….

God Bless `em all …

The pic above shows my my family during the conflict, in 1940. From left to right, My Uncle Vic, my Dad(Ted), my Auntie Iris and Uncle Rex in the back garden at my Aunties house where she lived with her brother, Rex. You can just see at the right of them the mound covered with lines of flowers and at the top some bricks. This was their air-raid shelter where they spent many a long night as the bombs fell very near by. The shelter remained in her garden til at least 2003 when sadly my Auntie passed over. The only one still with us is Uncle Vic ….

 Well, here we are on another Sunday, a very grey day over here but warm as usual which is a bit weird as its obviously nearly half way thru` Oct and we should be getting our winter woolies out prepared for general everyday wear. Instead we have such mild weather now I can`t quite get my head around it and am still able to wander about with just a lightweight jacket on most of the time…  only in between the rain of course! Today has been “standable” though, no real rainfall of any sort for a change, just “greyness” which lays like a blanket over this land seemingly for most of the time, especially this “summer” !

So I did not-alot-of-anything today which sometimes is very pleasureable and just retreated into a cocoon-like zone but took the pics above to prove I was still alive and not the only one retreating into a sleep-state… even the squirrel pictured sat on my rear fence and just “doped-out” for a full 10 minutes which I`ve never seen a squirrel do before! I`m sorry to all those out there that consider squirrels a pest nowadays but I still  like `em!  So, what does everyone else do on a Sunday? The interweb seems a quieter place over the weekend too, there never seems to be much “traffic” anywhere … so where is everyone? Its quite a nice feeling really cos it must mean that people and families get together to “do” things which I know must seem remarkably obvious to everyone but when you`re at home at each day and they all become the same the weekend comes as quite a relief somehow … so, “What Did YOU Do last Weekend”? (sounds like a movie!)

abuse verb (abused, abusing) 1 to use (one’s position, power, etc) wrongly. 2 to misuse something, especially to use (drugs) improperly. 3 to treat someone or something cruelly or wrongly. 4 to betray (a confidence). 5 to speak rudely or insultingly to or about someone. noun 1 wrong use of one’s position, power, etc. 2 (also drug abuse) the excessive use of alcohol, drugs or other harmful substances, especially as distinguished from the more severe form of dependence known as addiction. 3 bad or cruel treatment of someone or something. 4also child abuse) the physical, mental or emotional maltreatment of a child by one of its parents or another adult. 5 an evil or corrupt practice. 6 rude or insulting words said to or about someone.ETYMOLOGY: 15c: from Latin abusus, past participle of abuti to misuse.

I came across the badge above when visiting  Rubyshooz`s A Piece of Peace  and you can find the post  here  A great idea and one that could make a difference, so if anyone is reading this and doing a bit of blogging…go have a look and a think about it. I always like to look up ordinary words like abuse when they`re focussed on because we kind of take them for granted these ordinary small words that we see so often. So I`m glad of dictionaries sometimes cos they make quite a difference when you see, spelled out, what the word really entails……  Abuse is such a small word too and yet encompasses an awful lot. So I`m not going to concentrate on a type of abuse but rather how much of it there is. And there is too is`nt there? Its everywhere, all the time…and the thing is…we all do it! We all abuse something at some point in time, whether it be trust, friends, partners, people, animals, things, objects, places…even time! How strange and weird is that! Its something that we all do..we Abuse something!! I find that hard to digest somehow. I just wanted to maybe get across the idea that we should take a minute and think pretty hard about this small word..and all it entails and what we can do about it to make this planet a better place, just to give a little thought about our own behavior and attitude towards….everything! What a tough call eh? Yet with a small effort we could quite possibly make a big difference to ourselves as humans…just a little thought and integrity is all thats required…so give it a go, think of all those different ways we abuse ourselves and others and knock the amount down one or two notches…it will make a difference to the World!