Tag: existence
Hoyt Hamilton, come on down!
I got a response from Councilmember Hoyt Hamilton of the Clearwater City Council over the Ferry idea that I floated with them.
He brought up the fact that they had offered a free ferry in 2000 and it saw a little bit of ridership and before it, a private ferry was in service that charged 3 bucks round trip and did poorly.
I got encouraged that someone replied at all… And now I’ve gotten my head on straight and typed up another letter, thanking him for it and then talking about some issues that I have with what he brought up.
The Free Ferry operated on weekends alone. I have no clue what the hours were. It operated for 3 months total and saw some 2650 riders. Losses were 500 smackers a day. Ok, good. Now how come you were only operating it on weekends when tourists are on Clearwater Beach or trying to get to the beach all week? Were you specifically tryign to cater to the locals who would be beach hopping on the weekend?
How much advertising was part of this free ferry service? I wasn’t a beach visitor in 2000 and don’t recall any press about the ferry being in existence – let alone publicity about using it to get to and from Clearwater Beach.
If you’re goign to do something, you can’t just do it half assed. That’s what Clearwater seems to have done with the ferry while it was in operation. I’ve been out on the beach during tourist season this year and I’ve seen how the spring break crowd is confined to the strip…. That or traffic dodging while trying to walk the Clearwater Memorial Causeway.
My reply letter is already typed up and ready to send. I’m glad I got a response. Now let’s see if Pam Iorio (or one of her staff) or Rick Baker (or one of his staff) reply.
Web projects
Well, people already saw on my last post I am thinking about doing a Buccaneers Web Log… That being said, Stonegauge Productions may have a new client soon enough.
Danielle’s boss is in desperate need to not only get a lower-costing hosting company but also improve (visibility, sales, etc ) her store’s web site – Chantilly Lace Gifts… It’s an E-Commerce site that isn’t doing any commerce (no sales in a year of existence). It doesn’t get any exposure and damn it, it doesn’t even give you a glipse of the store itself.
Nice design pre-designed site but a challenge from top to bottom.
Batten Down the Hatches!
I was going to post about some political mumbo jumbo but there is a more pressing situation — I think Mr. Tommy Dunan does a better job posting about Florida’s multi-tiered threat against it’s very existence.
I haven’t dealt with a Hurricane head on since I was a real young kid living on Long Island…. This is certainly an ordeal I am trying to overprepare for.
All Networked Up
I am as happy as a pig in shit right now. For a couple of reasons but first and foremost — because I just solved a bane of my existence.
I paid $160 bucks or close to it for 2 pieces of a WiFi Network — A Router and a Network Adapter — from Linksys. Not bad seeing I could have paid much much more but still a ton of cash at the time.
So I set up the router and then I go down to my father’s computer — mind you this is a few months ago — and I hook up the Network adapter and…
Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Bupkus. Didley Squat. Etc. (thank you Juliane Moore, your Slang Dictionary reading character Electra inspires my alternative words for nothing)
The thing wouldn’t connect to the Internet / the Wi Fi Network. The signal strength could be anywhere from 60-100 percent and nothing was going on. It frustrated the hell out of me to try, try, try, try and have every possible re-configuration amount to shit. Nothing worked. In fact, sometimes when it seemed like it was working – the computer would lock up and you would have to reboot.
I disconnected the router, disconnected the network adapter and wrapped them up and filed them away for a month or two… Which leads me to yesterday and today.
Yesterday my father is talking about going to Verizon DSL service. Now, my father isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer to go along with his other things that piss me off. He talks about Verizon offering a deal to connect ALL of your computers to DSL Internet access for “one low monthly fee” — his exact words, I swear….
I go to Verizon’s site and no where do they offer to hook each individual computer up to DSL Internet Access for one low fee. They offer Fee access the first month, 29.95 for the next two months and 34.99 each following month.
Per – Computer – Connection.
I tell my father this and he doesn’t believe me – he believes the radio ad he heard in his car. I get pissed off and prove him wrong, and show him that not only does Verizon want to get you to use their Internet access but to wire your computers all to the Internet, you have to invest in their own home networking offer as well as the DSL connection.
Ronnie got pissy at this and I got pissed off as well.
So today with my ample spare time I vow to solve this bullshit of the anti-networking WiFi network. I hook up the router again and configure it. I then hook up the network adapter to his computer. Nothing. I am running upstairs and downstairs for 2 hours trying to get this thing to work. Nada…
And then? What happens? I decide to change one frigging’ setting — installing one extra thing that Linksys’ software didn’t automatically install.
POOF — I connect to the Internet on my fathers computer, using my own broadband connection upstairs..
So my Sunday has been eventful. My weekend has been eventful for that matter. I’ll post further about this soon enough but for right now — i will just :woot and end this story
Traditionless
I was flipping through the cable channels this evening and came across ESPNews, which was reporting a trade between the New York Knicks in the NBA and another team. I started thinking about the Knicks name, which is short for Knickerbockers, and how classy/traditional the name is in a sense that it just seems totally old school…
It then occured to me that any or every NBA player has to ask themselves what the hell a Knickerbocker is. They also probably wonder why the team is keeping such a lame name…
Welcome to the NBA.
You look at the other professional sport leagues and not only are names with non-modern/urban undertones in existence, but there are traditions stacked upon traditions in each league. The NHL has the hat trick — which leads to caps thrown onto the ice. Major League Baseball has the 7th Inning Stretch. The NFL has the coin flip, gatorade dousings and individual traditions (as do MLB and teh NHL) such as the Lambeau Leap and the Thanksgiving Day games involving the Cowboys and the Lions….
What does the NBA have?
The NBA has rapists, drug abusers, teenagers who skipped College for the money and shoe deals with Nike. The NBA has arrogance and individualism. The NBA tries to be one big highlight reel of slam dunks….
And people wonder why I don’t follow the sport?
While fans in Detroit are tossing Octopi onto the ice at Joe Louis Arena to celebrate a Red WIngs goal, and while Yankee fans are dancing to Rock and Roll Part Two (the Hey song) or YMCA between innings, NBA fans have mascots doing basketball tricks and players bitching at each other and making threats. While the Buccaneers have their pirate ship firing after a touchdown (a relatively new tradition), the NBA has gimmick slam dunks that everyone tries to imitate.
Michael Jordan is not the norm of the NBA — he’s just the most imitated player.
Last hours
I feel odd tonight. Very much alone even though I’ve heard from friends – some of them – and had gotten in touch with Andy (my younger brother) who I don’t get to talk to as much since he moved out of the house…
Something’s missing… Maybe it’s just because I’ve been through this shit twice before in the last year and there was something that came up each time and it didn’t come up at the same time…
*sigh*
I don’t know what to say and I don’t know to stay silent. There is no joy in silence – that much I have learned. There is joy in laughter but there is no joy when the laughter is held back because the ache is too apparent. There are no smiles when the grim is hanging over you and there are only so many things you can do before you go slowly insane with worry and fear.
So, John Fontana, Neurofibrometosis Type 2 sufferer, will be going of the air again for the second time in only a few months. The Stonegauge falling silent may or may not happen – tht depends on certain people who I have entrusted this page to.
Why do I want the page to go on — even if it’s mundane stuff being reported about people’s private lives? Because the point of the Stonegauge, since I was originally broken hearted in March of this year, was to stay drunk on writing in a way to escape the day to day… Finding words sometimes were the only way to get through… I would like tha carried on even if I am not here. I know that isn’t the easiest thing to do, nor is it something desired by those who have done it in the past, but it’s there to do and I am hoping it goes on….
The operation is scheduled for 7:30 AM… It’s supposed to last six hours…. I might be under anesthesia, but these will likely be the longest 6 hours of my life — defining just who I am going to be and what life I will lead for the remainder of my mortal existence…
There is stuff I want to say in closing but alas, they are really empty statements and not true words…. There is a lot of emptiness around… Emptiness that is caused by things out of my hands — beyond my control. Shit happens and all of that…. Who’s to say that’s not true? Decisions that you make – so yourself alone.
Take care, all. A happy and joyous Thanksgiving to those who find this site – and best wishes for the Holidays.
Lives
We’re all born into the world and take on a physical life for ourselves. Through the course of our existence on the planet, we live thousands of lives even if we aren’t aware of them.
Different personalities show up at different points and they tend to have a life of their own, for example. The smart ass, the looker, the jock, the know-it-all, the slut, the crybaby, the actor, the liar, the whiner, etc, etc… All these different personality traits alone have lives of their own and you live them as you go from the day you are born to the day of your demise.
It doesn’t stop there.
You live your life – your life changes before you and you tend to adjust to the new conditions. These adjustments change you as a person and it can be said that you start a new life under these new conditions. You strive for a goal in this life, perchance, and when you achieve it – your life changes again and a new goal is set… Or perchance you have something taken away, an injury, a social malignancy? Again, your life changes — you start living a NEW life as you try to come to grips with these new parameters that surround you.
And of course there are social lives. With every single person you interact with, you forge a tie that can be called it’s own life. Only ones that you are close to you tend to create a more intimate life with them (significant others). The catch to the entire thing is that you don’t have to have things in common for this life to be born. You don’t need to be going in the same direction in life… Your connection is a life that the two of you create together. It’s your commitment to that life that could alter your other lives or not.
Lives are all around us – Physical lives, emotional lives, psychological lives and the like… The question to you is, are you willing to see a life through, or will you kill it if it stands in the way of another life? Will you abort a life that doesn’t fit the moment? Or perchance embrace it and see other lives come crashing down because of it?
Fight Lines
So I was up at an hour that
is between dawn and lunch… I couldn’t tell, it was all such a blur to me that
my "wake up" shower lasted 20 minutes with me mumbling as I scrubbed
and thinking of things and people instead of focusing on my day ahead. Actually
it was quite nice to be up at a sane hour in the morning for a change (even
though I didn’t get to sleep until midnight). I’ve been stuck in this unending
trend of getting up from 10:30 to Noon and having rather unproductive days because
of it.
Well, actually, this day
hasn’t been too productive either so don’t think everything was much better
off with me getting up at a sane hour and being able to term the start of my
day as it truly was – the morning.
SO I went to see Doc Smith
and his merry band of medical matrons who masterly manipulated and mutilated
my moxie by keeping me waiting for an hour after the time I was scheduled to
have my appointment. Of course, Dr. Cahill’s passing was most likely the cause
of things being tied up at TGH, so I’ll forgive them for this.
Unfortunately it’s a lot
harder to forgive my body for what it’s putting me through and putting my doctor
thorough, who isn’t quite certain what the cause of trouble is for me or where
to proceed. And there’s a lot of trouble for me. Even more trouble than I mentioned
to him and trouble that can’t be found on MRI images (well, at least this set
of them).
But all in all, a fight
line is being drawn. Action is going to take place soon enough. The powers are
aligning – some for me, some against. Of course, I have to battle on much as
the poem says. I’ve got too many places to go, things to see, people to do..
It’s such a demanding existence, I tell ya! :-p
I had Keith read my first
rough draft of my Non-Fiction assignment (mind you, there are 5 of them and
I was just trying harder with one) and basically he told me it was crap
Of course he also inspired a re-write that put the story more in the first person
about going through the trials and tribulations of a Bucs fan over the years
and the end result was 920+ words and a much better story. I’ve gone through
it once since I wrote it, will have to go through it again before I get up the
nerve to print this story out and send it to Lou.
Personally, I don’t want to keep doing Non-fiction, I want to learn how to become
more charismatic in my writing (as my last assignment feels cold except through
the story’s twists and turns) and keep on chugging with fiction.
eXistenZ
What does life amount to? Absent of all the emotions and all of the material stuff? What does existence amount to, or the human soul?
In simple imagery, I think of life as stretch of beach that goes on for no set length, no known distance, endlessly spanning north to south, or east to west. Is there something beyond this shore? Of course there is. But we aren’t able to see it. Heck, we aren’t even able to comprehend it. We’ll get back to that in a minute.
So before you lay an endless stretch of white sandy beach. The granules packed pretty loosely as there aren’t many people walking along this shore to pack things down. There have been those to walk along it before or at least they have been there in our imagination. Right now it’s just a hypothesis that somewhere at sometime, someone walked along the shore and put things as they are.
Now take a closer look at the sand itself. You can see that the sand isn’t so small like sugar, but it’s of the thicker variety. Hardy, yet very movable by the tide and nature itself which always plays a part on any sandy beach that lies anywhere on earth. Pick up a hand full of that sand and let it course through your fingers until you have one granule of sand left. What does this amount to?
Your existence in the grand scheme of things happens to be one grain of sand on an endless stretch of beach, surrounded by endless others who’s existence borders your own.
Toss that grain of sand to the sea and you have just wiped out your existence in one fell swoop. Oh, don’t worry, there’s more sand there to take your place – those lying underneath you, waiting to be exposed to the air and the sun, and many who have been tossed to or swept away by the sea have a chance of washing up again in their existence until they are destroyed in whatever fashion sand gets obliterated.
This is a really good analogy to life itself when I think about it. There is so much that is beyond our comprehension right now that we don’t even have the faintest clue that it exists. I touched on this a moment ago by mentioning that there is life beyond the shore. You know that there is more inland… it’s a fact of geography. We’re not just a sandbar or a desert isle, that’s our current limit of comprehension how small we are.
Some people move on in a greater cosmic sense beyond their lives, I have no clue as to how much time it takes them to achieve this but at the same time I am sure it happens. Some of it is accidental, some of it is by nature, but it does indeed happen. Some of us move away from the shore and get mixed in with the soil that lies inland or whatever lies beyond.
But for so many – billions upon billions – we’re trapped along the shore, being swept away with the tide and washed up again later on during the duration of our soul’s existence.
Our live are nothing, yet we make up a beautiful stretch of shore together. If only we could comprehend the smallness of our lives, or that working together for a common goal helps us achieve something great – picturesque – that lasts for ages beyond our own time…
Now if I could only find someone who wants to be part of that picture with me…
