Tag: PR

Hortatory self-aggrandizement.

Why 365 Names of God?

Why not? Well, the folks at Make Something Every Day And Change Your Life (http://makesomething365.blogspot.com/) crossed my path, and where the whim goeth, goeth I. Names are sourced from:

1. Traditional religions
2. Science fiction, fantasy, autobiography or other literature
3. The author’s brain and/or territories thereof
4. Reader submissions (send with attribution to scoop@sonic.net, subject “365 Names”)

Among other things, I hope to show the universality of the God-concept: an individual or cultural belief in or knowledge of Something or Someone transcendent, creative, monistic, final and above all Mysterious. Partly, I hope to dissolve walls by making them more distinct; also, as Lower North America seems to be calling for a new Dark Age, I want to show that no one has a monopoly on “God.” (Better still: that everyone’s an expert.)


Follow this project at https://metaphorager.net/tag/365-names-of-god/.

2010 Roundup: Top Posts

IT’S DE RIGUEUR FOR NEWS outlets to wrap up the year with a look at their Big Stories, and we at Metaphorager.Net are no exception despite that we’re only a “news outlet” in the sense of “what’s news to me.” After 10 years of blogging, we only reached our 365th post last week. I could cull my favorites, but that’s a bit too self-serving so here instead is a commented list of this year’s Top Seven Posts by views (as they’re all the stats I could find):

5 Thoughts: Why (and How) We Write 1,636 Views
This was enjoyed and shared by someone with a stumbleupon.com account. I like to imagine it adorning writers’ garrets from here to Montmartre.

About 97 Views
For those who couldn’t help asking, “Who IS this guy?”

ORL Redux: Interview with Robert Anton Wilson 95 Views
Thanks to the wonderful folks at http://rawilsonfans.com, this Most Obscure Interview EVER With Robert Anton Wilson isn’t languishing unread in the bottom of a packing crate.

Links 71 Views
I can’t explain the number here. I sometimes check a site’s links-page if its “About Us” doesn’t tell me enough; maybe others do too. (If that’s the case here, read this instead.) On the other hand, some of these are definitely me checking layout … but not that often.

A Proposal for the Moon of Earth 71 Views
Tied for views with the “Links” page is this immodest proposal to eternalize Stanley Kubrick. I don’t know why it’s not built yet; someone must be on to me. Ooops. Ha ha ha. Is this thing on?

Season’s Regreetings 43 Views
This was also seen and shared through its Facebook page, account, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Same-To-You/178304932195551. (The numbers are essential to the link.) The view count here doesn’t concern me as much as, say, Prosatio Silban or the pithyisms — I’d like to see it spread, credit or not.

Clips 37 Views
News pieces, commentaries and speeches. (Yes, speeches.) Nice to know they hold an interest of some sort — I hope historical.

In related news, the top 10 Google searches turning up a Metaphorager.Net reference are “natural machines” (12), “smallest particle accelerator” (12), “https://metaphorager.net/raw/” (10), “janusz korczak” (6), “metaphorager” (6), “‘jim gjerde’ sputnik” (5), “religious fables” (5), “pithyism” (4), “https://metaphorager.net” (4), and “80s generic foods” (3).
(Also with 3: “linda tomback,” “letter to a dead friend,” “robert anton wilson interview,” “jon stewart slams glenn beck,” “prosatio silban,” “a couple of hamburgers,” and “https://metaphorager.net/frank-frazetta-r” (which full link is actually “https://metaphorager.net/frank-frazetta-rip/.”) Footprints on a digital beach. I like ’em.

Clam Shirt Sits

IT’S TIME FOR THE FAMILY gifting list, but since all I really want for the holidays is an idea for another blog post I now have that. (Thanks Stan!) However, my relatives are kindly pestering me for details, so here — reduxed from an earlier list — they are:

Fig. 1.
– A working lightsaber, phaser, jetpack, hovercraft, warp-capable spaceship or rubber-band machine gun
– Pair of blue jeans, size 36-29
– Pair of grey or khaki slacks, size 36-29
– Several black long-sleeved T-shirts, size L
– Socks, grey or black or white cotton
– A Blue Sun T-shirt
– A pea coat or brown duster (size L)
– One of them iPoddy iPaddy iPhoney things
– Flight lessons or why not just an ultralight?
– Canoe or kayak
– Backpack stove
– A gift certificate for Artscroll or Feldheim Books, Orion Telescopes or Archie McPhee
– A functioning national health-care system to keep from further falling through the crack
– A successful diagnosis of and treatment for chronic pain, nausea and dizziness
– Knowledge of and conversation with extraterrestrial sentience
– Or at least the discovery of some sort of extremophilic goo on Europa, or Ganymede, or Titan, or Mars
– A full set of TOS, DS9 and SW:CW DVDs
– Any Serenity/Firefly books or comix
– A fair and just solution to the Arab/Israeli conflict
– What the hell, all conflicts from international to intradomestic
– An end to militant ignorance, uncivil snark and attituder-than-thou vacuousness
– More compassion for everyone, by everyone
– Clarity of thought and perception
– Bring the boys (and girls, now war-weary men and women) back home
– Global high-tech green moneyless libertarianism

All and each of which are well substituted by a hug, smile or anchovy pizza. May we all be blessed by seeing what we already have — and what we can give to others.

Ghosts Don’t Interest Me

NOTE THE SPECIFICITY OF THE title — I didn’t say I don’t like ghosts, or that I shun their company or “disbelieve” in their “existence.” But they’re no big thing to me, any more so than the other amazing things about which I can do nothing but appreciate.

Like most people, I stand at the rim and center of diverse circles of friends: the local Jewish community, the local media community, my pirate buddies, college fiends, pagans, ol’ hippies and any number of peace officers, firefighters and clergyfolk, each of exceptional intelligence and veracity, all of whom trust their eyes and ears despite preconceptions, and whose only motivation in retelling some awfully weird goings-on was to understand their UFO sighting, religious vision, haunting, reincarnation evidence, Ouija session, telekinesis, missing time, seance, monster encounter or near-death experience. (Like I would know.) Continue reading “Ghosts Don’t Interest Me”

We’re All Clones (Except Me)

A RECENT FACEBOOK POLL (OF which I generally conduct one daily) revealed that few people have experienced the mindbreaking awe of encountering their own body double.

Let me assure you: No matter how often it happens, it is a very weird feeling, as it undoubtedly was for one such Other Me I spotted across the BART tracks late one night in the Walnut Creek station (we kept looking at each other nervously; he in sports jacket and briefcase, me in long hair and T-shirt). It likewise may be or have been weird for those other Other Mes I’ve seen in newspaper and book photos (mostly Afghanis, Pashtun and Russians, but once of a forced-smiling Jew in a Nazi-overseen road crew).

To date I have yet to converse with myself, although I once got into an argument with a fast-food cashier who swore I was the beverage guy “making fun” of her.

Perhaps an ancient ancestor was emphatically fecund, or otherwise genetically impressive. But I tend to think this communal physiology is more construction than consanguinity (a fine word, but of too-little conversational relevance, meaning “relation” ). My DNA was crafted among the Eastern Europeans on my mom’s side and Russia and Austria on my dad’s; on my dad’s side I’m also a Levite, those touchy servants of the ancestral Temple, and I sometimes wonder if the Other Mes are too.

But my bigger questions concern the fluidity of identity: How much of who “I” am depends on what I look like? Where I came from? And just how unique are we all, anyway? If someone looks like me and acts like me, I might be tempted, a la the mad monk Nasrudin, to tie a balloon to my leg to tell us apart, were it not for my inner sense that I’m the one wondering about him. But what if he thinks he’s me? Well sir, I should hope my friends would know the real me (the one who’s writing this now, or did before you read it) well enough to help me do the same when needed — especially in that waking fuzz when I don’t know who I am, only that it’s time to feed the cat.

As I say, few people have experienced this phenomenon, but those who know, know — as do, of course, those who only look like them. Everyone else will just have to take our word for it.

Come Out To Sonoma

HAVING MENTIONED THIS ON FACEBOOK yesterday in the wake of U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker’s 136-page ruling against Proposition 8, I’d better repeat it here:

Neal Ross Attinson offers his services as secular ULC minister to marriage-seeking gay California couples

My only balk is doing anything in Jesus’ name, since I’m both unqualified and uninterested. (“Bob” is okay, though; I’m biordanial.) And may I suggest this spring in Sonoma?

Free Metaphor: “Lower North American”

0. CONCISION AND PRECISION ARE ESSENTIAL components of the modern metaphor. What your end-user metaphorager is looking for is light in the mouth and easy on the fingers, especially when describing social groups — you want something tight enough to express the point but loose enough to avoid looking like a stereotyping (and -typical) fool.

1. The challenge is greater when describing cultures within a geographical area. Specifically, what to conversationally call those of us residing between Mexico and Canada? “Americans” leaves out residents of those countries, as well as everyone south until the Patagonians (who, despite their patient excellence for crafting outdoor gear, are sticklers for self-affiliative accuracy). Continue reading “Free Metaphor: “Lower North American””

5 Thoughts: And On Your Left, the Pons Creamery

THE METAPHORAGER.NET VISITOR LOGS MAKE for interesting reading; it’s fun to see what rough edges of my prose snags on Google and other search engines; it’s nice to count the international flags and know that any Belgian with an iPhone can snatch up with digital fingers (pun) the latest dispatch from whatever lives in my brain. But it also becomes apparent that some items are missing out; thus, a guide to the un- or lesser-‘phoraged pages of This Here Site.

1. Posse Commentatus: It’s long been an observation of mine that the same patterns are exhibited by the institutions and cultures of both the fandom and religious communities (i.e., those religions built around a central text). Posse Commentatus posits that the major difference between Jedi and Jew is about 3,000 years of backstory — and that the text isn’t as important as its message and its inspirations.

2. Clips: A small representation of my journalistic cred. (I mean, I wouldn’t read them either, but I have to put them somewhere; one of this site’s missions is aggressive self-aggrandizement.)

3. A Proposal For The Moon of Earth and/or Lunar Update: Back to the Redrawing Board: Perhaps the idea of looping Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece via lunar projector is a bit crazy after all. If you disagree, pick up a shovel and help.

4. Daily Gasp: This is in the sidebar right under “Wine Country Weather.” It links to NASA’s “Astronomical Picture of the Day” site which, if you haven’t see it yet, you must drop everything to click on. (“NOW, kid.” — Arlo Guthrie) I can think of fewer things more instantly awe-inducing than the view Outside, both for beauty and perspective.

5. Category: Writing See #2 above, except I actually would read these — and I invite anyone who wants to help make me a better writer to click away and start commenting. (On the other hand, if you’re looking for something nice to read over lunch, I’ll see you then!)

5 Thoughts: Fiction- v. News-Writing

1. YOU STOP WRITING A NEWS piece when you run out of facts. But when do you stop writing fiction? When you run out of story, I suppose.

2. In news, the most important information goes up top. In fiction, it’s in the reader’s head — at least with genre pieces. There has to be some connection between the reader’s mind and the writer’s expression in terms of shared assumptions or expectations. A science fiction author knows his readers are unfazed by three-headed alien bankers, so doesn’t need to waste valuable real estate on justifying same beyond adhering to strict internal consistency. Someone writing for a general audience needs to adjust their bankers, but touch not the consistency! Continue reading “5 Thoughts: Fiction- v. News-Writing”

Lunar Update: Back to the Redrawing Board

LAST OCTOBER, I POSTED “A Proposal for the Moon of Earth” — “a suitable solar-powered visual display in the lunar crater Tycho, for the purpose of looping Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film ‘2001: A space odyssey.'” The original idea visualized a miles-wide JumboTron that could be seen through a backyard telescope (say, the 90mm Maksutov-Cassegrain in my living room). The seemingly impossible logistics didn’t bother me — after all, it’s Only An Idea, and one for which I’m offering a spurious and very large reward to anyone who can complete it. I put out some feelers, made appropriate noises on appropriate websites, and figured we’d all have a good laugh and go on to the next thing.

Then I heard about the IPN Project, whose goal is “to define the architecture and protocols necessary to permit interoperation of the Internet resident on Earth with other remotely located internets resident on other planets or spacecraft in transit.” And it occurred to me that APftMoE might actually be possible: not by building a giant video display, but a smaller one — oh, say, large enough to fit inside a full-size monolith model and produce an image sharp enough to be transmitted to Earth by a moon-based webcam (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: TVA-1

Thus, and from this moment on, APftMoE is no longer dedicated to building a giant video display — we are now dedicated to building a rocket which will deliver and deploy the “TVA-1” module consisting of a power source, webcam, transmitter and monolith with embedded HD display. This should give us a great view of the crater rim in the background, prove less costly of both time and money, and make it more feasible and attractive to potential backers and/or sweat-equititians.

I’ll make a few phone calls. Meanwhile, stay tuned to https://metaphorager.net/lunar-enterprise/ for updates!

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