long and winding road

 I just noticed that I failed to post anything up here on my alternative forgotten blog this year.

Listening to music always inspires a few extra thoughts in my mind. I like analogies. They often provide alternative views of life.

Most everyone has been on a long and winding road but we have also been in/on other places too. How about a life analogy being:

• a muddy ditch
• a steep slippery path
• a raging flood
• a crashing ocean wave
• a lazy river
• a freezing winter blast of snow
• a dark room with scattered Lego bricks
  

Now you might recall The Beatles wrote and sang "The Long and Winding Road". However, Sheryl Crow, wrote "Everyday Is A Winding Road".

Everyday is a winding road
I get a little bit closer
Everyday is a faded sign
I get a little bit closer to feeling fine

must face it

 I might as well face it. I'm an old white man!

good parody

Performer Jen Houston turned Cyndi Lauper song "Time After Time" into a Trump song parody "Crime After Crime."


While I found this parody funny the truth behind it is very sad. Trumpy Dumpty has ruined the office of President. Here's a few lines from the parody that were really good (or bad for the US)

Lying about everything
Don't matter if it's small or big

He's a thug, he's a crook
He's our president
Crime after crime

He's insane, narcissistic,
Can't help himself

Pardons dangled
To White House aides
To break the law
Grammar mangled
He's a grifter,  a crook,
That's our president
Crime after crime






While I have doubts the current impeachment process will get him thrown out, I hope at least it raises enough voter awareness and energy to have him and his loyal politicians lose their next election.

This parody needs more views.

Pick up the pieces

Pieces.
Not those Reese pieces.

Pieces of an idea. Pieces of the past. Pieces of a blog. Going to pieces.

How about a piece of music.

dreaming my life away

Really?

Sheryl Crow co-wrote and sang about change 1997. Now if any of you have extra change please send it my way. Of course, that’s not the type of change her song is about (but it would do me good).

My favorite line from her song is:

“Hello it's me, I'm not at home,
If you'd like to reach me, leave me alone”

Great answer machine greeting, but very few still have answer machines today and even fewer leave voice messages. It changed.

my butterfly friend

It seems change happens quicker than ever before. Do you agree?

It could be I just have more time to observe and think about it. You know, watch the wheel go around.

I know there are times when events make you so busy you don’t have time to notice any change other than the next thing thrown at you. Those extreme busy times can end well. Like a fast spin on the merry-go-round it might make you merry or sick.

No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go

Those words were written by John Lennon. His song, “Watching the Wheels” is about taking it down a few notches, chilling out, relaxing, getting off a merry-go-round operated by an insensitive corporation. Or to put it in a way more applicable to myself - falling off the ladder of success.

Now I started with Sheryl Crow and ended up with John Lennon. It doesn’t seem odd to me at all. If the type of change that would do me good involved less stress and lazy days then I find the two songs go well together. They could be on the same playlist.
(note on my inspiration - I thought of the “Watching the Wheels” song on a visit to Middle Age Ramblings blog)


Here’s the lyrics and a youtube clip of John Lennon’s advice:

People say I'm crazy
doing what I'm doing
Well they give me all kinds of warnings
to save me from ruin
When I say that I'm o.k. well they look at me kind of strange
Surely you're not happy now you no longer play the game
People say I'm lazy
dreaming my life away
Well they give me all kinds of advice
designed to enlighten me
When I tell them that I'm doing fine watching shadows on the wall
Don't you miss the big time boy you're no longer on the ball
I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
Ah, people asking questions
lost in confusion
Well I tell them there's no problem,
only solutions
Well they shake their heads and they look at me as if I've lost my mind
I tell them there's no hurry
I'm just sitting here doing time
I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
I just had to let it go
I just had to let it go

 

nothing is going to stop us now

Well my laptop battery running low often slows me down.

The song that shares this post title doesn't hold special memories or was one I even listened to much.  The reason it found it's way into this post is the title and pace of the song.  There is an inspirational motivational feeling to the song.

So now in 2015, approaching 30 years since the song's release, I'm still motivated to post in this sidelined blog.

ain't no

Listen baby
Ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough

to keep all those photos on pinterest

I'm just saying.

There's no way anyone could see all of them.

Jingle Blogs Jingle Blogs

Posting through the snow

need more views today

over fiber optics I go

posting all the way (ha ha)

making writing tight

What fun it is to post and link

A parody tonight

Oh jingle blogs jingle blogs

jingle all the way

Oh what fun

It is to write

this low ranked blog, hey

jingle blogs jingle blogs

jingle all the way

Oh what comment will I see

on my post today

You see

After two nights, the internet spun,

My eyes began to turn red.

After three nights, in the facebook fun,

I couldn’t make it to my bed.

And the story it told, of a comment that flowed,

Made me sad to think it was from Fred.

You see I've been through the internet on a blog with no name,

It felt good to be out of the same.

On the internet you can forget your name,

'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no claim.

La, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la

You can find the whole parody over at "a blog with no name".  (hey if you can sing and would be willing to do a youtube video of this, we could go viral together)

ooh ooh oh oh you don’t have to blog

ooh ooh oh oh you don’t have to go

I continued blogging as something to do. The initial blog, A Few Clowns Short, came as my grand idea of creating a sharing place for the group of us who had lost their job. 

Create something and post it for the world to see. Now that’s sorta cool. I’ll be honest I thought there might be some ad money in it too. I made a buck or two but like most of the bloggers I’ve come to know, I don’t blog for the money. I could not justify blogging for just pennies. There was something else happening. A creative escape?

oh baby please don’t go

No it’s certainly not money. It’s the enjoyment of sharing thoughts, ideas that cause others to interact. Having someone I have never met write back saying I gave them a laugh is almost like having a group laugh at your joke. A virtual stage and a virtual audience set-up just for your performance.

Other times it can just be a relief to rant some issue out of your mind. You might find a kindred spirit telling you know they agree with your rant.  A digital high-five.

every breathe I take every move I make

The feedback from strangers is intoxicating at times. This is especially true when the number of readers are increasing. The strangers become friends even though you only meet via words. A story, a comment, a reply, they are only words strung together. But you could say a best selling novel is only words strung together.

It wasn’t long after getting a few regular followers that I just hooked. A few times I’ve considered dropping the whole thing.

when I read the post you wrote
It made me mad mad mad
when I read the stories that it told to me
It made me sad sad sad 
I still love it so
I can’t let it go 

I can quit anytime. yeah right

Bring back that linky feeling

(if you can sing - sing this to the tune of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling")

You never reply back anymore when I like your post
And there's no updates like before in your feed list
You're trying hard not to post it
But baby, baby I know it
You've lost that linky feeling
Ooh that linky feeling
You've lost that linky feeling
Now it's gone gone gone oh oh oh

Just when I started to get the hang of this blogging game, facebook and twitter popularity grows even more. I know there is a limited amount of time people have for browsing the internet.

...‘cause baby something beautiful dying...

I’ve had many bloggers just drop off my comment section. Sure there will always be the fading of interest over time. They say we are creatures of habit. I would modify that to “creatures of short habits”.

Would it be fair to say these past bloggers and followers are cheating on the blogs over on facebook?

The drop off in blog visits has been caused by more than facebook time. Reading facebook with an smartphone app is easy. Do followers read blogs from their smaller smartphone screens? I don’t think so. Web access via smartphone vs. laptop is killing the blogosphere. I like to think only the better blogs will survive.

Of course, fewer and fewer music listeners play the Righteous Brothers too.
 

Bring back that blog linky feeling

I’d love to change the blog

but I don’t know what to do.

So I leave it up to you.

(I’ll probably be still saying this ten years after)

As I sit picking away the moments that make up a dull day, flashes of the past play games with the present. Have you ever stopped, looked around, smelled the wind, and wonder how you got here? No, me neither.

 

Why am I soft in the middle now? 
Why am I soft in the middle the rest of my life is so hard?

Call me Al.

Is it still a dream after it's written down? Maybe a still dream.

Watch out 

You might get what you're after 

Cool babies 

Strange but not a stranger 

I’m - an - ordinary - guy

I don’t care to burn down the blog. Just trying to keep it alive.

Watching comment numbers fluctuating like the price on a gas station pump can be discouraging. You start to question your approach, your ideas.  I want you to take me to funkytown. Oh wait, that’s too old. No one does funky anymore.

Do I let the background music change my direction?

Tell me where is sanity?