Static Blog
For the near future, I won’t be posting, anymore. I upgraded to a “Pro” plan a few months back. That was a bad move. I was on “Premium” prior to that, knowing that WordPress would, eventually, corral everyone into the Gutenberg (block) editor…some kicking and screaming. I thought about coughing up more money for a “Business” plan but, never could come up with the funds. Premium is $99 a year, which translates to, roughly, $8 a month. When Pro showed up as an interim choice, I added the $80 upgrade to my Premium renewal and thought I would be good to go. I did get two very nice plug-ins…and everything else went to hell.
I have gone many, many rounds with the “happiness engineers” to no avail. One of their “explanations” for my site going nuts is that, Pro is on a different server and the “migration” didn’t work very well. Hm. Why didn’t you PHP geniuses figure that out before fucking up my site?
So, now, if I upload a video to my site, it will play in the phone app but, not the Reader (in a browser). If I embed my videos, they will play in the Reader but, not in the phone app…and they used to, even if off center from viewing.
Another piece of blowback on all of this is, my site, viewed in a browser on a phone, is whacked. It used to be a clean & polished looking mobile site. Not anymore. I was told by another loopy engineer that it was because my theme was “legacy” and it didn’t work well with AMP. My Premium account didn’t use AMP so, my site looked just fine. The suggestion was for me to find another theme. Um…why? I’ve had my theme for five years and I worked very hard to set it up the way I liked it. WordPress should step in and clean up THEIR mess, not require me…A PAYING CUSTOMER…to deal with their self-imposed shit.
My frustration level has been off the charts. During a recent chat with a WP genius, something really weird happened to my Reader in Brave. When the chat ended, I noticed that all the icons were gone. The Reader has icons next to words. They were all gone. When you looked for the “like” stars or the “comment” symbols, they were all gone. In their place were numbers, only. If there were no likes or comments, it was blank. I don’t know what the PHP genius did but, the Reader operates fine in Firefox. I was told to “clear my cache”, which I do everyday, to no avail.
This has ruined my desire to blog at all. My hell has been paid for, for the next year, so…here, it will sit. Unless something changes, I won’t renew, again. I read, recently, that Matt Mullenweg, Mr. WordPress, himself, isn’t hands on, anymore. Everything has been turned over to The WordPress Foundation. That is nearly as ominous-sounding as the World Economic Forum and we all know how well they fuck things up.
That being said, this site will not be shuttered. I maintain too much important information on my landing page:
I encourage everyone to read, watch & listen to everything I have posted on that page. I also own a documentary that is hidden because of copyright issues. If you would like to view it, send me an email.
I will be around… ~Vic
TV Tuesday: Just For Fun 1947
Seventy-five years, ago, today, the black & white TV Movie Just For Fun aired on the BBC. Created/devised and written by Richard Hearne, he stars as Mr. Pastry:
…an old man with a walrus moustache [sic], dressed in a black suit or raincoat and with a trademark bowler hat. [T]he the bumbling old man would have adventures, partly slapstick, partly comic dance, with two young friends. Jon Pertwee also starred in the show in a variety of roles. The Mr. Pastry character had originated in the 1936 stage show Big Boy in which Hearne had appeared with Fred Emney.
Directed and produced by Walton Anderson, it also starred John Blore Borelli (and his orchestra), Buddy Bradley, Joan Heal, Yvonne Hearne, Jean Kent & Henry Oscar.
Hearne first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in March 1954, with many subsequent visits. Buster Keaton was a fan. He was interviewed by producer Barry Letts for the role of Doctor Who when Pertwee departed but, wished to play The Doctor as Mr. Pastry. Letts, in turn, offered the role to Tom Baker.
I couldn’t find any clips for this movie but, I did find Hearne/Mr. Pastry on Ed Sullivan. ~Vic
Additional:
Just For Fun (BFI)
Just For Fun (British Comedy Guide)
POTD: Crescent Moon
Nice shot from my buddy, Ray. ~Vic
Click for a larger view.
Picture of the Day
POTD: Stiffy
T-shirt advertisement from a buddy of mine. Just a little hunting humor… ~Vic
Click for a larger view.
Picture of the Day
Chris Thomas: Understanding Change
A PDF Mini-Book From: The Chris Thomas Files
We humans need to get a grip. We are poised to undergo the greatest level of change ever seen in this, or any other, Universe. All souls, that have adopted human form, made a promise to ourselves, to the Earth and to the Universe at large that we would fulfill our promise and potential that was offered to us when we undertook a physical existence.
In 1996, we each looked at our state of readiness to reach our full potential. Every person on the planet, at that time, had the ability to achieve our goals but, only 40 percent of the, then, population decided that they were ready. Since then, we have undergone massive changes of energy, on a personal and planetary level and, have arrived at the time when our potential could be fulfilled and yet, the number of people who are ready to undergo soul reintegration has dropped. Instead of the 40 percent of 1996, by 2011 there are only 15 percent of the population who have made the necessary adjustments to their lives in order to move forwards.
These are the figures and percentages recorded within the Akashic – for a fuller explanation see below.
This 15 percent represents about 1 billion people and this figure is barely enough to carry us through our change. What is needed is a minimum of 25 percent – about 1.7 to 2 billion people undergoing soul reintegration at the same time to make our change as smooth as possible and counterbalance the forces that would prevent this change from happening at all.
Our Origins
In order to understand change, we must first understand who and what we are. Our Earth is the most important planet within our Universe. This does not mean that humans are particularly special, just that we live in a special place and are subject to energies and energetic forces that exist nowhere else within the whole of Creation. Apart from 2,800 “First-Born” souls who were created to be true “Earthlings”, every other soul that exists on Earth has come here from somewhere else within our Universe. The story of the First-Born is outside of the scope of this essay but, these are souls who were specifically created so that Earth is their place of “soul-origin”.
What does make humans unique is, that in order to become human, we must leave our place of actual soul origin, leave behind any bodies that we might have had and cloak our souls in the “soil” of the Earth in order to build for ourselves a new body. In other words, we do have a soul but, a soul that has built for itself a body that must correspond with the “human template” that the Earth considers constituting a Human Being.
In order to maintain our position on Earth, the energies of the soul must be altered so as to resonate with the energies of the planet. It is not gravity that keeps us on the planet but, the energy frequencies of the first chakra. The chakras are aspects of the soul within the physical body and the frequencies of the first chakra connect us to the consciousness energy that is the Earth. This is why the first chakra is also called the “root” chakra as it literally roots us into the Earth’s energies – an immensely powerful soul to soul connection.
Soul Energies
The Earth exists in order to explore the potential that “physical” life seemed to offer. It was always planned that a form of Human Being would exist but, not what it looked like or how it functioned. All of the forms of life that exist on Earth have been created or adopted by the Earth’s consciousness and, initially, this was also true of Her experimental human forms. However, difficulties were experienced in developing a human form that was capable of supporting a “full soul”. In order to explore these difficulties, the problems were first studied on Lemuria and, then, experimented with on Atlantis – see Synthesis for the full story of human development.
By the time that we had finished our experiments on Atlantis, we had developed a human body form that could accommodate the whole of the soul. However, we began to experience difficulties in maintaining the whole of the soul within the body and set about exploring the problem. Unfortunately, other events prevented us from finding a full answer before we, collectively, had to destroy the Atlantis continent.
The Human Plan
It took 40,000 years to undo the damage that resulted from destroying a continent and we returned to Earth about 20,000 years ago. On our return, we were as we were on Atlantis – the whole of the soul contained within the human body. It is difficult to describe what is meant by a “whole soul” state as we do not have the necessary vocabulary. The primary difference lies in the density of the human body in that a whole soul state brings about a lightening of density and major changes within our cell structures – everything becomes much lighter and much less dense.
When we began, again, 20,000 years ago, we anticipated that we would experience difficulties in maintaining this whole soul state for the whole of our natural life spans – about 1,500 years. As we began to lose some of the higher brain and psychic functions, we began to build energy enhancing structures that could re-merge the whole soul back into the body. These energy enhancing structures are the pyramids of Egypt, South America and, several other locations on the planet’s surface, as well as the Silbury Hill/Avebury/Stonehenge complex in Britain.
Unfortunately, these energy enhancing structures could only restore a full-soul state for a temporary period and so we began to look for other ways of solving our problems. The underlying problem was this:
The Earth has a resonance, a base-note frequency, with which all living things resonate. This is the frequency of the root chakra. In order to create “physical” forms of life, the Earth chose a frequency of 7.56 Hz (this means 7.56 cycles per second).
This frequency was too low to hold the whole of the human soul within the body. What we needed to do was to find out what this base-note frequency needed to be raised to in order for us to remain as Human Beings.
7,000 years ago, we put into action a plan where we could experience all of the possibilities that physical life has to offer as a means of discovering to what frequency the Earth’s base-note needed to be raised. In order to put this Plan into action, we deliberately divided the soul into two – the physical self (about 25% of the total soul) and the higher self (the remaining 75% of the total soul). This division made the physical body very much more dense than it had been and we lost most of our psychic and sensory abilities.
To continue reading (this is a 15-page mini-book), download the PDF version HERE.
[Note: This PDF Mini-Book was originally posted on The Spirit Guides UK website on August 14, 2011.]
Story Sunday: Can Opener Bridge
Photo Author: Mark Clifton
Click for a larger view.
At 11 foot 8 inches [sic], the Norfolk Southern-Gregson Street Overpass, located in Durham, [NC] […], is a bit too short. The federal government recommends that bridges on public roads should have a clearance of at least 14 feet [but], when this railroad trestle was built in the 1940s, there were no standards for minimum clearance. As a result, trucks would frequently hit the bridge and get its roof scrapped [sic] off.
Durhan resident Jürgen Henn has been witnessing these crashes for years from across the street where he worked. Wishing to share these hilarious mishaps with the rest of the world, Henn set up a video camera in April 2008 and began recording them for his ever popular website 11foot8.com. By the end of 2015, more than one hundred trucks had their tops violently ripped off. These scalping videos, which are also available on his YouTube Channel, have racked up millions of views bringing this particular bridge, nicknamed “the can opener”, a fair amount of international fame.
As Jürgen Henn explains in his website [sic], the bridge cannot be raised because doing so would require the tracks to be raised for several miles to adjust the incline. North Carolina Railroad doesn’t want to pay for the enormous expense it would entail. The bridge cannot be lowered either because there is a major sewer line running only four feet under the street.
Photo Author: Mark Clifton
Click for a larger view.
Instead, the city authorities installed an alert system that detects when an over-height truck tries to pass under and flashes yellow warning lights several feet ahead of the bridge. [However], many drivers either do not pay attention or fail to heed the warning and crash into the bridge. The railroad department, who owns the bridge, installed a heavy steel crash beam in front of the bridge that takes most of the impact, protecting the actual structure of the train trestle. This crash beam is hit so often that it had to be replaced at least once.
As far as both parties are concerned, the city of Durham and North Carolina Railroad, adequate steps have been taken to solve the problem. The railroad authorities’ concern is with the bridge and the rails above, not the trucks, [hence], the beam. The city, on the other hand, has posted prominent “low clearance” signs from [three] blocks away, leading up to the trestle, over and above the automatic warning system that is triggered by vehicles that are too tall. Apparently, these measures are not enough to prevent accidents. On average there is one crash every month.
When Henn interviewed a few drivers as they deflated their tires to lower their vehicles enough to free them, some told him that they didn’t know their trucks’ heights, while others insisted they didn’t see the signs. Durham officials are now trying out a new tactic. A few months ago, they installed a traffic signal at the intersection before the bridge and hooked up the height sensor to it. When an over-height truck approaches the intersection, the light turns red and stays red for a long time. The light eventually turns green but, the city hopes that the long delay will give the drivers enough time to realize their truck will not fit under the bridge. Unfortunately for the drivers, and to the delight of the rest, the bridge continues to shave the tops of over-height vehicles.
The Infamous Can Opener Bridge
Amusing Planet
Kaushik Patowary
December 17, 2016
I can attest to this bridge, personally. I lived in Durham for two years in the middle 90s. Why those folks don’t turn off onto Peabody Street or Pettigrew Street, coming from the other side, I don’t know. They just plow right under it. It is right behind Brightleaf Square. ~Vic
Jürgen Henn’s Website
Henn’s YouTube Channel
Additional:
♦ 11 Feet, 8 Inches… (99% Invisible/Kurt Kohlstedt/08-29-2016)
♦ Durham’s Bridge of Death Will Decapitate Any Tall Truck (Bloomberg/John Metcalfe/10-25-2012)
♦ Trucks Have Hit This Low Bridge More Than 100 Times… (Vox/Timothy B. Lee/01-06-2016)
♦ A Little Off The Top… (Indy Week/Danny Hooley/01-06-2016)
♦ Norfolk Southern–Gregson Street Overpass (Wikipedia)
Compilation of Crashes
Flashback Friday: Alcoholics Anonymous 1935
Author: John Leffman
Eighty-seven years ago, today, Robert Smith drank his last drink, the date marked by AA for its anniversaries.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an international mutual aid fellowship dedicated to abstinence based recovery from alcoholism through its spiritually inclined Twelve Step program. Following its Twelve Traditions, AA and autonomous AA groups are self-supporting through the strictly voluntary contributions from members only. The Traditions also establish AA as non-professional, non-denominational and apolitical, with an avowed desire to stop drinking as its sole requirement for membership. Though AA has not endorsed the disease model of alcoholism, to which its program is nonetheless sympathetic, its wider acceptance is partly due to many members independently promulgating it. A recent scientific review shows that by many measures AA does as well or better than other clinical interventions or no treatment. In particular, AA produces better abstinence rates with lower medical costs. As of 2020, having spread to diverse cultures, including geopolitical areas normally resistant to grassroots movements, AA has estimated its worldwide membership to be over two million with 75% of those in the U.S. and Canada.
AA marks 1935 for its founding when Wall Street analyst and newly recovering alcoholic Bill Wilson, then reeling from a failed proxy fight, sought to stay sober by commiserating with detoxing surgeon Bob Smith. After leaving the Oxford Group to form a fellowship of alcoholics only, Wilson and Smith, along with other early members, wrote Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered From Alcoholism, from which AA acquired its name. Published in 1939 and commonly called “the Big Book”, it contains AA’s Twelve Step recovery program. Later editions included the Twelve Traditions, first adopted in 1946 to formalize and unify the fellowship as a “benign anarchy”.
Wiki Summary
VOTD: Sgt. Kitten Takes Point
This is so adorable. One kitten is point man, then the rest come out. ~Vic
Video of the Day
Wayback Wednesday: Attilla Attacks Italy 452
Author: Willhelm Dilich
Source: Ungarische Chronica
Image Credit: Wikipedia
Attila was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Ostrogoths, Alans and Bulgars, among others, in Central and Eastern Europe. He is also considered one of the most powerful rulers in world history.
Attila [invaded] and [ravaged] Italy on June 8, 452, one-thousand, five hundred and seventy years, ago, today. Communities became established in what would later become Venice as a result of these attacks when the residents fled to small islands in the Venetian Lagoon. His army sacked numerous cities and razed Aquileia so completely that it was afterwards hard to recognize its original site. Aëtius lacked the strength to offer battle, but managed to harass and slow Attila’s advance with only a shadow force. Attila finally halted at the River Po. By this point, disease and starvation may have taken hold in Attila’s camp, thus hindering his war efforts and potentially contributing to the cessation of invasion.
Wiki Summary
Attila, by-name Flagellum Dei (Latin: “Scourge of God”) [ruled] jointly with his elder brother Bleda until 445. In legend, he appears under the name Etzel in the Nibelungenlied and under the name Atli in Icelandic sagas. The empire that Attila and his elder brother Bleda inherited seems to have stretched from the Alps and the Baltic in the west to somewhere near the Caspian Sea in the east.
In 452, the Huns invaded Italy and sacked several cities, including Aquileia, Patavium (Padua), Verona, Brixia (Brescia), Bergomum (Bergamo), and Mediolanum (Milan). Aetius could do nothing to halt them but, the famine and pestilence raging in Italy in that year compelled the Huns to leave without crossing the Apennines.
Attila, King of the Huns
Britannica Summary
Attila invaded northern Italy in 452 but, spared the city of Rome due to the diplomacy of Pope Leo I and the rough shape of his own troops. Legend has it that St. Peter and St. Paul appeared to Attila, threatening to strike him dead if he did not settle with Pope Leo I. Attila died the following year, in 453, before he could try once again to take Italy.
Attlia the Hun
Biography