It's Super Saturday!

Thank you Sandy Kessler for the wish of a special Saturday, posted on your blog! The same for you! In fact, the same is wished for all of you who come here for an occasional moment of bemusement.

When wished to have a nice day or a good weekend, one of my friends used to say, "Thanks, but I have other plans." He was trying to be funny. Now I use that phrase when someone tells me where to go, what to kiss, or to do some self contorting act. There's usually no comeback to it. Sometimes, I even get a chuckle or a smile that cracks the atmosphere of anger.

Please do have a super Saturday, especially you Mrs. Kessler, and I hope you don't have other plans. I don't!

Dread

Synchrocity (ever how it's spelled)

We never know where a ripple once loosed on the world will end. Doug Thompson, whose blog I don't have linked here but I read regularly, recently proved the point well. He set loose a ripple over 30 years ago, that he hadn't fully realized the impact of, that came calling across his path again. These kind of things happen quiet a lot when people are in tune with their path. There are other ways to put it, but that's what I'll call it for now; "being in turne with your path".

Every act, word, or even thought, has its own resonance that reverberates through creation, spreading its influence as it moves along through the eons. Sometimes we see an effect or a ripple recross our path, but as often as not our actions can be orphans, taking on a life of their own, far away from their origins. We hold in our hands, a responsibility to the future with each word we speak, each gesture we make, or thing we do or leave undone.

I've lived long enough to see many of the ripples of my own wake recross my path, and to know that all the universe is but one great sphere. No matter which direction you travel, nor how far, and whether you realize it or not, given enough time, and the same will happen to you.

I know that's how it is here beneath the Carolina moon. And, now Doug Thompson proves that it happens in Virginia, and Illinois. I suggest that you have a read of Doug's blog post titled "Small World". Click the link and then scroll down 3/4 of the page then click the "read more" thingy at the end of the intoduction of "Small World". Then I hope you will come back and leave a comment to let me know what you think. Blue Ridge Muse/

Thanks for dropping by,

Dread

Yes (which is a “Y” word) I skipped Y

Yes (<-There! A Y!), that is Benjamin Franklin. Why(<-oh another Y!) do I have Ben as today’s illustration? I’ll get to that; sort of. Why (<-notice another y) did I skip Y (<-there it is again) in my flow through the alphabet? Ah well, it could have been missed medication. It could have been eagerness to be done with that pass of the alphabet. It could have been I thought Y (<-yes, there it is again) is a yucky (<-Oh! Doubles!) letter, and one of my least favorite in the whole alphabet. Y(<-Okay, I’m getting tired of pointing these out) is used to spell YELLOW, which is the designated yucky and puke like color of the palate. I have my own theories about how yellow came into being, and I don’t really think God created that one. Its just an evil color. You might guess that I have a history with yellow that prejudices me against it. You would be right. I’m not going to discuss it here though. I get nauseated thinking about it even momentarily. I doubt you want me to transfer that nausea to words for you to read and plant into you own head, so let’s just skip it. Instead I’ll plug in something else here today.

Since I finished the alphabet with the last post, and began a new post which ground rules I laid down say there are no rules, I’ve decided to mention the Y, which I did already, and mention Bob Wallace who sometimes writes on “The Sudden Curve”. Which is a strange blog I visit with some sporadic regularity. If you find the phrase “sporadic regularity” a bit oxymoronish and confusing, you should read what Bob writes on his other site (I dare not call it a blog). The Bob Circus 3.0 has a collection of his writings which, although I haven’t read all of them nor even a sufficient sample to offer a credible critique, I find to be somewhat less rambling than my pastor’s sermons and at least near as wise and useful. Similar to my pastor’s Sunday sermons, but not quiet as lengthy, his writings often ramble for two pages before he makes a one sentence statement that says it all. Both pastor’s sermons and Bob’s writings are usually worth wading through to get to that sentence though, and usually provide an entertaining path to that sentence and back.

I am a firm believer that the wisest and most meaningful things ever said were said in three sentences or less. I’ve read nothing to prove me wrong in that perspective. Today I read on The Bob Circus, “Benjamin Franklin was absolutely correct when he wrote, "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety." And they'll lose both liberty and safety.” Now Bob quotes Ben Franklin, a man known for wisdom, which in my unhumble opinion, was a very wise thing to do, then injects his on conclusion. I happen to agree, with both Ben and Bob.

I’ve exercised my liberty to skip the Y, and then again to put it up there today. I don’t want to bother with putting links in to The Sudden Curve or The Bob Circus 3.0, so you’ll just have to hunt for them if you want to have a read. That’s another neat thing about liberty, you have the liberty to do, AND the liberty to not do; at least you do here beneath the Carolina moon.

Dread

Zanzibar is the Z Word to End the Alphabet

Zanzibar is located in the Indian Ocean south of Kenya and just across the Zanzibar Channel from Tanzania. Located directly across from the mouths of the Wami and Pangani Rivers, Zanzibar appears also to have a city named Zanzibar, but I’m really not sure. Most people have heard of Zanzibar, but they can’t place when or why. The information I was able to get on Zanzibar is confusing. It appears Zanzibar is made up of two major islands and a bunch of minor sandbar type islands. The interweb can be a sorry place to research some places, while a good place to research other places. Zanzibar seems to have been pushed into the strange and strained side of the webnet.

Zanzibar has traditionally been a final whistle stop for great safaris, hence it has forever been romanticized, fictionalized, and aggrandized. When something larger than life gets mixed into a story of fantasy, truth and legend, it becomes difficult to separate fact from legend. After all, the degree of exotic, rich, and opulent is mostly in the discernment of the individual. Much like Rome, Venice, Paris, Katmandu, and Singapore, the word Zanzibar alone conjures up a unique romance that defines exotic. But, today’s post isn’t so much about Zanzibar, except what has been written already, as it is about a Zanzibar inhabitant and about endings and beginnings.

The Red Colobus Monkey is a native of Zanzibar and about the only thing I know about them is, unlike myself, they haven’t reproduced in captivity. They do reproduce in the wilds of Zanzibar though. There’s probably a good lesson in that for all of us, but I’ll let each of you figure that one out on your own. I have my own take, but rather keep it private.

As for Zanzibar, being the final destination and end of the great safaris, I suppose you could consider it the end of the earth. It certainly is practically an opposite end of the earth from North America from whence I hail. But as we all know, and if not you are about to be told, all endings are beginnings. With this post, I’ve reached the end of the alphabet again, and begin a new series for the blog. I’m also ending the alphabet following habit I’ve had for a couple of passes. I’ve found it to be constraining, and there are ideas that just feed into my consciousness that sometimes scream to be let out. All that screaming is distracting, and makes it hard to focus on whatever letter of the alphabet I am on at that particular time.

So, today’s post of Zanzibar, the end of the earth, is the end of the alphabet, and the end of the series. But not the end of the blog. It’s a beginning of a new series, and the introduction of a new subtheme; the monkey. Today, it was the Red Colobus Monkey. Next, who knows? Maybe, the Albino HMS Monkey? As usual, I’ll interrupt with other thoughts, those that scream at me and won’t shut up until I let them out. Would you expect any less, here beneath the Carolina moon?

Dread

Xang is an "X" Word

While there are many X rated words out there, and most of you already know what they are, today I'll stick with the effort to educate and lift our intellect above that of the mere crass, brute creatures, by just sticking with an "X" word. Xang of course rhymes with Tang (R) (the breakfast drink suposedly invented for astronauts), and also dang (a deritive of damn, and a close relative of X rated words). If you say all these words together, like this; Xang Tang Dang, it sounds much like a Laotian war lord's name, or perhaps that of an anciant Chinese philosopher or emperor.

If you want to get technical, Xang actually comes from the orient, particularly Laos. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime web site states, "Modern-day Laos has its roots in the ancient Lao kingdom of Lan Xang (literally, "a million elephants"), established in the 14th century under King Fa Ngum. For three hundred years Lan Xang included large parts of present-day Cambodia and Thailand, as well as all of what is now Laos."

But today's blog isn't about Laotian Xang (except for what's already been said and the picture pirated off the United Nations Web site(What are they gonna do? Sanction an embargo against me?)). Anywho, today's post is about the Xang that is part of the Apache Server Project. And to explain that, I have to go back a ways; not as far back as the kingdom of Xang, but back a few years.

Once upon certain time, I had become so frustrated with webbased website building and restrictions, that I decided to put a web server of my own on line, and so I did. For several years I ran my own web site from my home based server over a cable connection. I used the Linux operating system (Mandrake flavor), and the Apache Web Server. Otherwise, I winged it. This worked nicely until the hardware began to get a little age and start to just wear out a couple of years ago.

The sever and web site ran off of an AMD 500 mhz processor home pc, with about 300 or so mb of ram. It did very nicely, thank you very much. The little server hosted a large web site called "C What I 8" that had a variety of features, one of which was the Beneath the Carolina Moon blog.

A couple of years ago, I built a new 3ghz Pentum based PC with a gig of ram to replace the aging AMD box, and began tinkering with an updated version of the Apache Web Server. It just wasn't as much fun as the old days, and I had a life full to do, with little time to dedicate to getting everything I wanted out of the server using wild scripts and other software to access data bases that I would have to build. Eventually, I disconnected the server and put the project on hold. But, I have now discovered that the Apache project has branched and rebranched and developed some really neat tools, one of which is Xang.

The welcome page of the Apache Xang Project states, "Apache Xang lets you quickly build data-driven, cross-platform Web applications that integrate disparate data sources. The Xang architecture cleanly separates data, logic and presentation. It is based on open industry standards such as HTTP, XML, XSL, DOM and ECMAScript (JavaScript)." You can read all about Xang here: The Apache Xang Project .

I'm excited about Xang, because it sounds like a useful tool that will help me build the kind of web site that I have had in mind for quiet some time. I don't think I'm going to host my blog there though. For now, Blogger gets by, and how often do I even post an entry? But its not a project to get to anytime soon. I've already got my hands full here beneath the Carolina moon. I'll have to clear the decks of a few things before I dive into that project.

Another oddball project will be coming to Beneath the Carolina Moon. After the "Z" post, we'll intoduce the Albino HMS Monkey. What is an albino HMS monkey? Stay tuned.

Dread

Wenches, Wars and Wreck are "W" Words

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean III last weekender and it amazed me. The FX were way past my expectations. Even though I didn't consider it to be suitable for young children, the very real life theme of the good guy falling into sailors' purgatory, whilst the drunken pirate captain makes out like the bandit he is, probably teaches our children what real life is actually like.

The first twenty five to thirty years of life are about rum, wenches and song, then someone will declare war on you just to try to become a big shot. No matter whether you win the war or not, or whether along the way you meet a wench who turns out to be a special woman, anyone who sails the seas of life never makes it to a permanent shore.

Life ain't fair. That's not a complaint, just a statement of fact. In the end, both the good guys and the bad, if indeed there are such things, slip beneath the waves, bash upon the rocks, rip apart on the reef, or take a cannon ball below the water line. We're headed for a wreck the day we set sail out of harbor. That's not a complaint either. There's a life of adventure riding with each wave, and a massive sea out there to hoist your sails over. Real life's FX can be pretty amazing too! I hope to visit a few more ports before I meet with that inevitable wreck.

I've survived rum and wenches, sea witches and wars, and am having a grand adventure. I've still got dry powder left to fight a few more wars too if need be. No more wenches needed though. I've a good woman that I want to sail to sunny balmy places with. A plotted course toward a paradise beach, a stiff favorable breeze to fill the sails, and a good woman by my side; the wreck will come in its own due time. Until then, yo ho!

Dread