The guilt-less storm

[gurdonark]

Last night, just as the humid air became nearly unbearable (a sad reminder that true Texas Summer looms near), a huge thunderstorm rolled in, cooling our house instantly, and giving us the play of thunderstorm ambient music, one of my favorite sets of sounds.

So many times the relief of a storm brings with it a small kernel of sadness. In Spring, a pleasant deluge of rain in Allen may mean that Oklahoma's tornado alley sustained heavy bowling action. In Autumn, our near-annual Labor Day storm means that a hurricane pummelled the Gulf of Mexico cities,
the weakened storm has travelled three hundred miles north, and we benefit from their suffering.

A June storm, though, often carries no mental burden that "somebody else paid for my simple rain". June storms are about relief. The measure of how harsh our Summer is depends on whether July and August storms relieve the heat. We'll see how it goes, but my guess is that we are in for a scorching Summer.

I had forgotten how running eBay sales sends me to my "My eBay" page to check their progress on a routine basis. It's silly, really, getting worked up about what's selling, because all the best bidding occurs in the last 12 hours of the auction, and the intermediate progress of the auction is irrelevant. I did take a moment to read my eBay posting of an "About Me" biography on eBay which I titled Gurdonark's Absurd Personal Mission Statement.

I think I need to write another chapbook on eBay. Something practical, to be printed up cheaply, and marketed. I began a book once on good hobbies for kids which do not require much expenditure of funs. I am reminded of it today by something marstokyo said in another journal, to the effect that the commercialization of culture may have made it easier to have been a kid in an earlier time. I worry that kids are merely consumer purchasing units, who could use a bit more simple, resourceful fun.

Maybe I should just write another chess book, but this time a booklet about the weird opening system I play these days. It would be a parody, as B players really shouldn't write chess books. But it might be a fun parody!

I want to work hard over these next four days. I want to get ahead.

Comments

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

Not just kids either. We're all manipulated to buy crap we don't need, to feel fear that's not real, to distrust our fellow man, to do unto others before they do it to you. I remember when Burt Bachrach's song *What the world needs now, is love sweet love* first came out and it was truly heartfelt by everyone who heard it. Now it's a parody of a sentiment that seems silly and stupid and very outdated. It used to be cool to drive a beat up Volkswagen and work for world Peace. Now you're labeled a Liberal and it's a dirty word. The only thing that matters is money and having MORE MORE MORE. To see this kind of change in one's own lifetime is discouraging to say the least. The only thing one can do is hold fast to good beliefs and raise our own children with those values and hope there are enough of them to turn the tide of destruction we're currently all riding to Hell.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I think materialism is a problem as well as selfishness. I come from a more cynical era than the Burt Bacharach song, though I always liked that song. But I notice a lot of kids today do have those ideals, and I'm grateful for them.

[missprune.livejournal.com]

I understand the enticement of checking... I sell used books on amazon.com and I probably slink past the computer, click to wake up the email page, and look hopefully for a "Sold-Ship now!" subject line -- about every fifteen minutes throughout the day. It's fun and addictive, no doubt about that. I am going to go look at your bio and see whether eBay is in my future... As for pleasant summer weather, maybe Montana is in YOUR future!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I've always wanted to go to Montana. I've done amazon auctions, but I've not done their used book service, but it would be fun to place, say, 1,000 books up and see how many I could sell!

[texastornado-91.livejournal.com]

Would you go the self-publishing route? Or what?

Gurdonark Books

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I'd definitely self-publish, a small chapbook, copied inexpensively. Then auction sales could net low prices, and I'd still make a small profit. I suppose if I wrote some 50 titles and did them aggressively, I could make some "real" money, but that sounds almost like work!

[robertstheology.livejournal.com]

I actually remember a short period of childhood with
no television. We lived on ten acres in the country,
I was the oldest of 5 children. I remember staying
out of doors for hours, with nothing but a broomstick,
and an empty cardboard box. But that box was everything,
from a stagecoach, to a ship sailing the seas. My
broomstick was a rifle, or a horse...

Apropros of nothing, I resigned all of my internet chess
tournament games this morning. I have suddenly lost the desire
for competition of any kind.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I go through non-chess phases, too. I think that desire for competition comes and goes.

My childhood was pretty TV obsessed, but I lived a life which was idyllic by today's standards when I was a kid.

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

that makes me chuckle..."I want to get ahead."

some cartoon scene....a head? ahead of what?

my eBay fun days are over, i have only eBay nightmares still...in time, in time

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Any eBay buyer who does not appreciate your art should just be grateful she did not buy my poems!

I want to get ahead! A head! I need a head! I'm heading off this pun.

Re:

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

thanks for the late night laugh!