COLD

     Frigid, Arctic, chill, subzero freeze, Deep Freeze. Absolute zero. Brutal, Bitter, Bone-chilling, bruising (?) cold. Twenty below may be routine for those above the arctic circle, but for us here in the US Midwest, it is an infrequent, unwelcome visitor. Whatever chilled label or icy metaphor you use, subzero temperatures are awful to contemplate – or experience.

     Fingers simply stop obeying the mind when plugging a parking meter. Frostbite can creep in swift and silent. The wind feels like a knife edge drawn across your face – all over your face. You wonder why you never stayed down south when you had the chance – for the umpteenth time. Every time the car starts (and warms up) you utter a silent prayer of thanks to whatever power you believe in. And if someone tells you you used to go out sledding in temps not too far off of these, you shake your head in disbelief. Was I ever that young and carefree?

     Somehow we Iowans will get through this spell. We always have before, and come out generally okay, if a bit 'shaken up' . Then, when the spring flowers shower us with our rewards of color and scent, we reckon it was probably worth it.

     But damn, it just can't get over with soon enough for this shivering blogger!

Trouble Down the Range

January weather is supposed to be brutal,

this one started balmy like a spring warm spell.

A dictator once called evil is now our buddy,

while our allies are quite often denigrated.

Up is down and left is right,

good is evil and day is night.

Welcome to the new morality;

our leader's likes have us all uptight.

Hard to pin a tail on a donkey in this

topsy-turvy world – nothing holds still.

Change races ahead in hyperdrive,

truth is indeed difficult to perceive.

May be simplest to sit out on some range,

hum and strum a guitar while the sun sets.

Deny the mass electronic mind control,

brush aside them liars, thieves and political memes.

As long as you got a full belly and old yeller,

maybe a flask full of whiskey to soothe old wounds,

A fella or gal can't go too wrong; you just may

forget public tragedy long enough to enjoy the dusk.

Sleep well, cowpokes, ya'all might need it.

Happy New Year - again

A fresh start for everyone,

new problems to solve,

new solutions to implement.

New friends to make,

new trends to follow.

New plants to grow,

new fruits to harvest.

New paths to explore,

new trails to follow.

New worlds to discover,

new transgressions to cover.

All kinds of directions to travel,

Many new puzzles to unravel.

Here is hoping it is for all a good year,

We can get past all the bad news fears.

Unconditional Nap-love

You are having kitty cat dreams,

chasing mice and playing with strings.

Your paws knead and stretch,

cover my chest as I join in a doze.

What greater peace could one achieve

than a quiet afternoon nap with a loving cat?

Warm creature trusts so much she opens

herself up totally, cuddles complete.

Awakens, purrs some, drifts off

uttering tiny noises, twitching in

more dreams.

Eventually her stomach sends an override,

she gets up, moves off and stretches.

Then hops off the bed for a bite and drink.

Perhaps another nap or three before the

inevitable playtime in the evening.

Her strings, balls and mice await,

all sit ready to be playful kitty bait.

Just another day

Another cabinet officer jumped ship,

another scandal for media to scream.

So many top-level officials have gone,

how can anyone consider our nation stable?

But the great American circus goes on,

somehow continuing despite the calamities.

People still get up, go to work, flow thru motions.

Necessity propels us always forward, if uncertain.

Here is a wish and a hope,

that some near-future morning

we can rise and face another day

with calm and stable leadership.

Emerging scratched but whole from an insane thicket,

could achieve new heights, voting in a new party ticket.

Cliches for Calamity

They are deserting him like jumping rats,

even vermin know when it is time to git!

This crippled ship of state threatens to

beach for good any day now.

While this may give cheer to the opposition,

one serious question looms...

How to rescue the rest of us?

What to replace it with?

Ships and states are not built in a day!

The deeper in the hole we get,

the further it is to climb out again.

Will we ever see daylight,

or just the glaring lamp of that

oncoming locomotive called economic disaster?

Even though I don't really believe in a deity,

times like this threaten to drive me to my

knees in supplication to something, anything

that can rescue the USA from this colossal mess.

Here is really hoping that tomorrow is a slightly better day.

Sun sinking lower

That bright orb rests lower,

scrapes the southern horizon.

Usual snow is absent this time,

landscape mosaics umber and sienna.

Slight south wind balms easy this year,

streets stay clear of icy obstructions.

We can all go out and shop like crazy,

or rest at home and let that pass us by.

Winter 2018 is another patchwork,

downs and ups and extremes all over.

weather imitating the stock markets,

Not sure what will happen in either case!

Hopefully we can survive and learn from our mistakes,

celebrate another holiday, watch for inevitable snowflakes.

Distractions

Want to attempt the impossible?

Just try and write poetry nowadays.

Shut off your streaming TV, hide the phone,

unplug your modem, make yourself alone.

Thus cut off from media oceans,

you can begin to create,

your page a blank slate.

Dredge up the lurking emotions...

How it felt to see the Trek family again,

the warm greetings and conversations,

Delicious treats and tasty anecdotes.

Can such things be put into words?

You can try to tame the desktop beast,

despite tempting links flashing before

your dazzled eyes, or glowing photos

tugging your attention in different directions.

I can still remember those summertime

Carnival barkers of old, yelling at you

with a hundred voices, “Hey buddy, hey pal,

come on over, try this, try that – only 50 cents!”

Now your computer or phone does it all the time.

The quiet, small stage of black and white,

marks and meanings parade across a page,

impart mental images and arrange concepts.

An escape from incessant blitz is delightful;

Hope you can enjoy it as much as I do.

Jefferson Iowa joins the Glittering Digerati

If Gretchen F. could visit her hometown today,

She might jump in the air and shout “Hooray!”

For humble Jefferson is getting a high-tech academy,

Silicon Valley execs investing a lot of their money.

“Let's keep the young folks at home,” is the refrain.

Bring a software company to town, to train

our collegiate crowd to create, craft and code

an exciting future for one central Iowa locale.

Congrats to Jefferson!

Influencer or Influenced

      Why not a self-referential blog post? After all, it is a self-focused activity anyway. When I first started the radical readings blog, it was actually an experimental little thing, using mixed uppercase and lowercase letters etc, trying to look cool. But I deleted my other, main blog, and this one remained, sitting unused for a while. Then I decided to try things on here. Youtube video links, or photos of the State Fair, and then finally, poetry and short stories when I got more into the literary writing thing. Now, here it is 2018, and I just hate to see this blog go away.

     After watching the documentary “Follow Me” on Netflix, it made me think about the social media phenomenon in general. Now it is not enough to just post stuff. It is much more about trying to do amazing stunts on Youtube to get hits, or take the most amazing Instagram selfie imaginable, or the most incredible Facebook post, etc ad nauseum. For me, the blog has been a way to toss out some of my poetry and writing, as well as promote my books. Guilty as charged. But I feel little remorse, aside from all of the time spent (or wasted) posting things that may be of very little interest to the rest of the world. After all, I'm in pretty good company.

     Not only famous people post things; now many become famous for posting just the right things. And it seems like most of humanity is on one kind of social media or another. To a child of the 1960s this still amazes me. The ages of being are now divided between before the Internet and online existence, and after. That line could be sharpest right around 1995-96 when masses of people started publishing their own web pages. Now, people were showing photos of their house, their pets, kids, spouses and even sexual preferences. Now, you didn't have one conventional life. Now you had two, one online and one offline, normal, static life.

     Today it has really gone bonkers. Our physical, real-world existence seems here only to feed, nurture and protect our exploding online presences. Data storage is cheap, and huge data centers are popping up all over the place. Even an online, virtual-world existence requires physical resources and real estate. There has to be some eventual place where we bump up against a limit, and have to stop, or at least shut off the devices once in a while. Who knows? If the giant FAANG companies can figure out a way to erect data centers in orbit or on the Moon or Mars, they probably will. And then we'll have even more storage for our cat pictures and grinning selfies. And I'm as guilty as anyone else. After all, I'm ranting about it here on my blog. Mike Wilson, doing his part to use up bits and bytes and disk sectors, doing his patriotic duty to consume. I salute me. And I salute you, dear reader, for your time expended on reading this er, stuff.

     I really do hope I can live twenty more years just to see where we end up. I'm amazed it has gone this far, astounded at some of the stuff people can download for free, which in the last century could only be imagined. Consumer I will happily remain, and leave it to others to try and become full-fledged Social Media Influencers . Good luck – I'll be watching. Lolz.

CEOTTK

So I watched that old standard again last night: Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

It was a classic sci-fi film. It was full of human drama, tension, and nefarious doings. And I found myself doing some mental comparisons between 1977 and now. One woman, a main character in the film, had her living room shown quite a bit. It had a rotary-dial telephone, a fold-down stereo set, and a large television. No desktop computer, no laptop, no tablet, no smartphone, or cell phone of any kind.

In other scenes, technicians for (apparently) NASA and/or the military all speak into bulky headsets. (the kind that probably were likely common in the early 1960's Mercury space program.) There was one computer CRT, which displayed some (monochrome) number sets. Lots of spinning radar dishes and automatic cameras were seen in the final sequences. In one scene a lady is taking a lot of snapshots with a regular cartridge-film camera. For 1977, nothing unusual. For today, quaint, dated, amusing. We have indeed come a long way.

Today the Extraterrestrials would be posted about, video-ed, shared – and they would “explode” across the entire Internet. Almost everyone would have some kind of image on their phone or PC in short order. But there would still be wonder and amazement in spades. Back in 1977, we were still struggling with the construction of the Space Shuttle. Today, no American spacecraft is able to loft astronauts into orbit, although a few are under construction. It is back to the capsules for us, made by private companies. The visiting aliens would have nothing to worry about regarding Earth-originating human-crewed spacecraft.

Their arrival would generate at least as much wonder today as back then. Would they generate the same light shows, that ultimate sky disco show? Or generate the same 5-tone sequence and spread it everywhere, including all the telephones? Hard to say. Someone is going to have to make a sequel to that film, for sure. Of the ET's coming back after 41 years. Hope someone does it. Hey Mr Spielberg, are you listening???? Thanks for reading.

Crazy Reigns These Days

Massacre at a synagogue, eleven dead.

Four policemen shot, possibly in the head.

Iowa congressman travels to Austria,

meets with neo-nazi thugs;

Companies decide to cut ties with him,

an awakening for the corporate slugs.

Our economy shines with high-powered veneer,

underneath workers struggle with poverty and fear.

Space program creeps along in fits and starts,

innovation fleeing our small-minded shores.

Seeking escape from their own pain,

people pick on others, driving them insane.

When will all of this madness end,

who can anyone really call a friend?

Inspired Capitalism just keeps changing the world

Froth, or A Venture-capitalist religion.

Starting companies can start fortunes,

industries, pump up economies, make careers,

change the lives of everyone in a nation or the world.

Light bulb, electric generation, AC power = modern civilization.

One guy perfected the light bulb, and made over society – all of it.

Two stinky nerds in a garage built a breadboard computer,

and their legacy is a trillion dollar company,

and a smartphone in a billion hands around the globe.

It is difficult to know what will take off, make it, hit it big,

be adopted and become fashionable.

Macintosh computers were obviously advanced, amazing,

but it took another two decades for their manufacturer to soar;

But the smartphone became ubiquitous in a decade.

When you combine technology, smart humans, capitol and determination,

astounding, improbable, unbelievable things can and do happen.

They have, over and over.

This is to denote a religion of inventing.

A religion of doing, a religion of making,

a religion of creation.

Not just once. But over and over, continuously.

This is the religion of inspired capitalism.

Not quite your pop stand or flea market table, no...

The “inspired” means intelligent, driven by one or more very smart founders.

You need intelligence, a background of technology, lots of financing, and determined, dedicated,

passionate employees. A venture capitalist to sit on the board and be a shepherd, a guide, a common-sense voice. Then, sit back and watch magic happen.

The mix won't catalyze, won't combust every time.

But when it does, the world is transformed, and billionaires are minted!

And more wealth is generated for everyone participating.

It is the duty, the mission and responsibility of the founders of every technology company:

To make their organization the next Apple, the next Xerox, the next Tandem, the next world-changing company out there. To strive for anything less is to allow mediocrity and ultimate failure into your company.

(In Froth We Trust – Froth is the next Big Thing.)

Froth - A religion of Inspired Capitalism

Inspired: by the Intellect of the founders and the Determination of the whole organization.

Capitalized: by Venture Capitalists and far-seeing investors.

Religion: Generating the non-stop dedication to the cause which is to create and market products that will change the world, revolutionize our lives, create wealth for everyone.

Examples of Inspired Capitalism – world-changing companies and ideas.

Apple computer

Cisco - fistfights in the corridors, but world-changing products shipped out the door.

Intel - founded by engineers fleeing Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968.

Tandem computers - because airline and wall street computers should not crash, by golly.

Segway and it's founder – let's try a new way to get people around. Dean Kamen.

Uber and Lyft, and other sharing technologies, Bird and scooter companies.

Some products will only last a few years, but they in turn propel further innovation.

AI-powered Robots and Dolls, controlled via Smartphone (thank you again, Steve Jobs).

(Some of us still remember the days when you had to walk up to a device and turn it on, not just tap your phone.)

A few individuals, some starting financing, a good idea, and miraculous transformation occurs.

Miracles are no longer the province of old-time Christianity. Now they will happen in labs and basements and garages, from Mountain View CA to Shanghai, China.

The next hundred years will be absolutely mind-boggling. Enjoy the show.

In memory of Gretchen Fosket

She came out of a corner,

and insinuated herself into my life.

A friendly smiling face at Alpha meetings,

A source of information about goings-on.

Her mood was not always the best,

since she battled various infirmities.

But when she smiled, she glowed,

and bestowed friendship and kindness.

She smiled often through all difficulties.

Lent support and a helping hand,

even a book to facilitate a years lessons.

Someone I did not even know,

except in reputation mis-represented.

She turned out to be a valued friend,

and a warm presence in my life.

Brain noise today

First you create intent,

desire and want and need.

Create hunger, thirst, cravings.

Desires both on the surface and deep down.

Then layer it with purpose,

intent laced with planning,

cunning and subterfuge.

An innate curiosity to learn,

and thus be able to satisfy urges.

Then you package it all,

make it portable, powerful,

ensconced atop a bipedal frame.

Mobile and loaded with senses.

Visual, infrared and ultraviolet sights,

deep olfactory library capable of molecular detection.

Four grapplers, each with seven digits, super-strong.

Once your apparatus is tested and diagnosed to a fault,

then you turn it on, sit down and have conversations.

You are now “Dad” and this is “Super-progeny.”

Meta-human, our successor.

Experimenting with URE

Cocksure poesy

Am not going to be demure,

or act all prim and mature;

Why would I want to obscure

efforts to insure romances aperture.

Undertake efforts to procure

someone with investiture;

forget that I am insecure,

just enter someone's plan for a future.

Go to clubs - don't be an amateur,

look in the mirror at your coiffure;

dance with the hotties and think thoughts impure,

see if they respond to any of your overtures.

In the end was unsure

if I could endure

wading through social manure

in order to procure

someone's love and ensure

our relationship would last forever.

Underlying structure of our universe

It is all their fault.

Masses of punch cards wracked western civilization,

to the refrain of “the computer did it”

or “we are having computer problems.”

The data moved swift to magnetic media.

Some blame shifted to erasure:

“The disk crashed, the tape got erased.”

A generation of teenagers fixated on video games.

PCs and Macs took over bedrooms and living rooms,

all tied together by the new, bedazzling Internet.

Companionship and conflict shrank to a mouse click away.

While everyone used mice, that is.

The advent of the Smartphone made a

new generation act like dumb humans.

The then-current crop of teens milled around,

zombies staring at tiny screens, lost in cyber space.

Now the screens grow larger, software

more varied and complex, capabilities increased.

PCs and Macs are for the older generation.

Love and life now groove on Iphones and Galaxies,

streamed live to your favored social media platform.

However,

deep down, below screens and circuitry,

under layers and layers of software,

those sneaky 1s and 0s shift silently around,

doing their dirty work every microsecond,

nanosecond, picosecond.

Social discontinuity is all their fault,

and they control the universe now:

01001110 01001111 01001000 01000001 01010100 01000101

New Decoration

Did they leap off the bridge,

catch a boot before the plunge?

Or was it a memento of past

roundups and romps on the range?

Trinkets get placed on pedestrian bridges,

locks symbolizing true love,

ribbons honoring a relative,

even commemorative plaques.

Never seen a leather boot on there!

What drugstore cowboy or range rascal

would part with such a precious icon,

replete with decorative eyeholes?

Unless there is a body with the other boot,

floating downriver;

or some motorcyclist is missing a

piece of valued luggage,

flung away while they were roaring

down a nearby road.

If boots could talk, then we would know.

So we speculate away, until someone

tosses the thing into the river,

or takes it away as a souvenir

of the wild, untamed Midwest.

Same to you and more of it

All around me now is quiet,

so nice to experience peace.

Flowers still bloom and trees stay green,

wind sways weed stalks, spores release.

Rain comes flooding in and wets the world,

soaks all the flowers and fleeces the trees.

Relaxing indoors is fine, quietude better.

One can contemplate and be at ease.

Enjoyed meeting with a group earlier,

we swapped funny anecdotes and left all pleased.

We take our wins and savor them at home,

prepare for the next problem or disease.

Another one always looms up ahead,

must stay alert, new problems never cease.

Am so thankful for past party enjoyments,

But always hoping for more joy to seize.

All around is discontent, scarcity, frustration, aggravation;

hidden by walls of brick, wood or some stucco frieze.

Best thing to do seems to keep plodding along,

stay alive, make money and the angry gods appease.

Native Energy

     Humankind has been studying using power from the sun for thousands of years. Evidence of early ovens and windmill-like devices from around 100-200 AD has been found. Over succeeding centuries, minor and major improvements have been made. By the 1400s, windmills were being used all over Denmark to pump water and so forth. In the twentieth century, wind and solar technology really made strides.

     Nowadays, one can see wind turbines in fields in many US states and even offshore, as well as in many other countries. We are deploying renewable energy technologies at an accelerating rate, and this bodes well for the environment as well as our energy security. But, due to factors like increasing population, our demand for fossil fuels seems to keep going up. More oil wells are being dug in areas from North Dakota to Texas. We continue to import oil from around the world. And oil pipelines are constructed to move the oil to refineries. Our environment suffers, from burning fossil fuels, and from pipelines leaking crude oil onto and into the earth. Pipeline rights-of-way have barged through sacred native burial grounds, and through watersheds. We keep having problems of various kinds due to our continued addiction to crude oil.

     There are various movements and groups trying to combat this. And to their credit, some utilities have undertaken large-scale deployment of wind turbine farms, and solar generation facilities. So there is hope. Nevertheless, coal plants are still used to generate electricity, and until we can shutter most or all of these, our air and water will continue to be polluted. So: one additional solution might be to form more local alternative-energy co-ops and groups, and even companies. These might be comprised of one or more Native American tribes pooling their resources, forming companies, either nonprofit or for profit, and diving into the alternative energy arena. Rather than simply running a casino, and keeping up with the Jones's, one or a group of tribes could do something revolutionary. Form a working group to form a corporation to deploy and sell alternative energy.

     This could consist of small solar installations on tribal homes, and setting up a billing system that would be fair and equitable to all involved. Or perhaps investing in a cooperative wind turbine or turbines. From there, expand it out to nearby homes, schools, businesses. Instead of waving signs and screaming at the pipeline companies, beat them at their own game. Offer energy alternatives.

One area that seems to be ripe is car charging stations. I see a few of these at libraries and public buildings. But there are many, many times that number of regular gas stations/convenience stores. Either set up a card-activated charging station, or partner with convenience store chains to set up charging units, with every charge sending a payment back to the NAE – Native American Energy – corporation, for example. Something to consider.

     In any case, it is gratifying to see more and more folks adopting alternative energy. Just today I read in the news that Jaguar is bringing out their own luxury all-electric vehicle, to compete with Tesla. More and more are seeing the benefits of adopting alternative propulsion, transportation, and all around energy. Native American tribes could do the same to help confront the pipeline intruders. Thanks for reading.