Don't worry... be jolly.. roger
Upon our arrival to the farm 2 weeks ago, we discovered in the yard a rather large "Jolly Roger" skull-&-crossbones flag waving to us in the breeze!
Obviously left there by some mischievous, lowlife pirate of yore, as a warm welcome gesture for the Pirate King and his Royal Courtesan to greet them upon their arrival.
Ah, but it did indeed warm our ordinarily cold, cruel hearts to see the familiar blackjack a-fluttering in the breeze.
As you can see, it gave our road-weary spirits a real lift.
Now.. some folks of modern persuasions, upon seeing the flying banner of a skull-n-crossbones would be somewhat taken aback, at first glance of Ole BlackJack. In truth my own associations (my 20th-century bio-programing), which I suspect are much the same as everyone else's, engendered the common meaning and feeling:
"Poison..Warning..Death..stay away.." etc..
But it also made me wonder about the history of the Jolly Roger pirate flag.
Thus, this morning.. since I knew I was going to be flinging my BS around for this LiveJournal entry, decided I should first go a-googling on the web to try to enlighten my own little brain just exactly 'what did the Jolly Roger flag mean?'..where did it come from? What was its significance? Blackbeard the pirate? ..blackhearted cutthroats of the high seas interested only in booty and bounty, rape, pillage and plunder?
Much to my surprise and enlightenment, the history of the skull & crossbones emblem has the Christian religion as its true source. For those of you who would be also interested in discovering where the Jolly Roger flag came from, you can read about it HERE.
This historical overview is short. (It doesn't drone on and on like SOME writers we know. It is also, as I saw on PBS awhile back, in the english tradition, modern age submariners in their return to port after a successful mission at sea, will fly the Jolly Roger flag on their way home.)
As with most things viewed and determined, so too the eye-of-the-beholder's acquired associations with the skull-n-bones image is the determiner of one's own realities and reactions about it.
Our attitudes, real and imagined is the thing that makes us all so diverse and interesting, now does it not?.. :-D
So thank ye O Daughter, for yer Jolly Welcome to us'ns, ..ye mangy offspring of a three-legged dawg ....(D'OH!)
OK.. Enough of pirate stuff.
I do want to add a couple of footnotes to the few of you have have signed on to read our (hopefully) fun-junque here... just so you know, sometimes either Patti or I will post something smallish, on the spur of the moment just because we have either found or thought of something interesting to ourselves, and we would like to share it with our readers. When this happens, and it will, we are probably NOT going to notify everyone with our en masse "update email" notice system. (this LiveJournal Jolly Roger posting bordered on non-notification)
For the longer LiveJournal entries such as the one below about cleaning the cistern, we will indeed send out email notification..
but not for the smaller piddly-poop ones, which you can catch up to any old time you feel like it.
Also.. I have been web journaling for almost 4 years now. In that time I have received feedback, both positive and negative about my use of colored type. Hopefully not too many of you are "put off" by my use of it which I am going to continue using. Be assured that I have struggled greatly with using multi-colored fonts. It is truly a love/hate relationship.
The crux of my conflict is this: I love a black background and I am not going to give it up. A black background supports and intensifies to the eye the photos that are posted here. (It is well known in both scientific and artist circles that our eyes automatically gravitate to the brightest spot in our field of vision.) Furthermore I have often tried to use a light monochrome font such as white type throughout the whole journal entry (as I am doing with this footnote) and.. I am inevitably much more dissatisfied with monochrome type than I am with using multiple colored type. What tends to happen is that after 30 seconds of reading anything in same color text, my short-term-attentive mind often becomes thoroughly bored with what I am reading and starts it's skimming process.. to hurry up and get through it all so I can move on to whatever is next, eternally searching for greater interest.. and.. in doing so I inevariably miss a good deal of what is really being said... boring or not. (It is the modern day curse of information overload, perhaps)
My usage of colored type (and breaking long paragraphs into shorter paragraphs) does not stop my urge to skim what others (and myself) have written, but breaking apart paragraphs and using colors does cause my mind to hesitate for a micro-second and pay slightly renewed attention to see if anything new is being written.
It is a kind of "stair-step" process as I read and scroll down my computer screen. My mind will light upon the next color, the next break and the next short paragraph just to see if anything more interesting to me is being said. If not, I zoom on... as I am inclined to do in reading this, skimming along my merry and absent way to the end...to get it over and done with. And as I drone snoringly on and on with this endless footnote, I'm sure you see what I mean!
Thus my continuing usage of colored type.. (and to you wisenheimers who would suggest I be more interesting, well.. ha!.. just YOU try writing half-assed interesting crap and then audaciously posting it all on the web! :-) ..and when Patti makes a post she will of course do it however she wants to do it... colored type or not.
OK... that's enough of this tripe for today.. it is time to go to Sioux City to get the Pioneer Princess some tofu.. or whatever that stuff is that she calls "food". :-D
TTFN mateys.
Obviously left there by some mischievous, lowlife pirate of yore, as a warm welcome gesture for the Pirate King and his Royal Courtesan to greet them upon their arrival.
Ah, but it did indeed warm our ordinarily cold, cruel hearts to see the familiar blackjack a-fluttering in the breeze.
As you can see, it gave our road-weary spirits a real lift.
Now.. some folks of modern persuasions, upon seeing the flying banner of a skull-n-crossbones would be somewhat taken aback, at first glance of Ole BlackJack. In truth my own associations (my 20th-century bio-programing), which I suspect are much the same as everyone else's, engendered the common meaning and feeling:
"Poison..Warning..Death..stay away.." etc..
But it also made me wonder about the history of the Jolly Roger pirate flag.
Thus, this morning.. since I knew I was going to be flinging my BS around for this LiveJournal entry, decided I should first go a-googling on the web to try to enlighten my own little brain just exactly 'what did the Jolly Roger flag mean?'..where did it come from? What was its significance? Blackbeard the pirate? ..blackhearted cutthroats of the high seas interested only in booty and bounty, rape, pillage and plunder?
Much to my surprise and enlightenment, the history of the skull & crossbones emblem has the Christian religion as its true source. For those of you who would be also interested in discovering where the Jolly Roger flag came from, you can read about it HERE.
This historical overview is short. (It doesn't drone on and on like SOME writers we know. It is also, as I saw on PBS awhile back, in the english tradition, modern age submariners in their return to port after a successful mission at sea, will fly the Jolly Roger flag on their way home.)
As with most things viewed and determined, so too the eye-of-the-beholder's acquired associations with the skull-n-bones image is the determiner of one's own realities and reactions about it.
Our attitudes, real and imagined is the thing that makes us all so diverse and interesting, now does it not?.. :-D
So thank ye O Daughter, for yer Jolly Welcome to us'ns, ..ye mangy offspring of a three-legged dawg ....(D'OH!)
OK.. Enough of pirate stuff.
I do want to add a couple of footnotes to the few of you have have signed on to read our (hopefully) fun-junque here... just so you know, sometimes either Patti or I will post something smallish, on the spur of the moment just because we have either found or thought of something interesting to ourselves, and we would like to share it with our readers. When this happens, and it will, we are probably NOT going to notify everyone with our en masse "update email" notice system. (this LiveJournal Jolly Roger posting bordered on non-notification)
For the longer LiveJournal entries such as the one below about cleaning the cistern, we will indeed send out email notification..
but not for the smaller piddly-poop ones, which you can catch up to any old time you feel like it.
Also.. I have been web journaling for almost 4 years now. In that time I have received feedback, both positive and negative about my use of colored type. Hopefully not too many of you are "put off" by my use of it which I am going to continue using. Be assured that I have struggled greatly with using multi-colored fonts. It is truly a love/hate relationship.
The crux of my conflict is this: I love a black background and I am not going to give it up. A black background supports and intensifies to the eye the photos that are posted here. (It is well known in both scientific and artist circles that our eyes automatically gravitate to the brightest spot in our field of vision.) Furthermore I have often tried to use a light monochrome font such as white type throughout the whole journal entry (as I am doing with this footnote) and.. I am inevitably much more dissatisfied with monochrome type than I am with using multiple colored type. What tends to happen is that after 30 seconds of reading anything in same color text, my short-term-attentive mind often becomes thoroughly bored with what I am reading and starts it's skimming process.. to hurry up and get through it all so I can move on to whatever is next, eternally searching for greater interest.. and.. in doing so I inevariably miss a good deal of what is really being said... boring or not. (It is the modern day curse of information overload, perhaps)
My usage of colored type (and breaking long paragraphs into shorter paragraphs) does not stop my urge to skim what others (and myself) have written, but breaking apart paragraphs and using colors does cause my mind to hesitate for a micro-second and pay slightly renewed attention to see if anything new is being written.
It is a kind of "stair-step" process as I read and scroll down my computer screen. My mind will light upon the next color, the next break and the next short paragraph just to see if anything more interesting to me is being said. If not, I zoom on... as I am inclined to do in reading this, skimming along my merry and absent way to the end...to get it over and done with. And as I drone snoringly on and on with this endless footnote, I'm sure you see what I mean!
Thus my continuing usage of colored type.. (and to you wisenheimers who would suggest I be more interesting, well.. ha!.. just YOU try writing half-assed interesting crap and then audaciously posting it all on the web! :-) ..and when Patti makes a post she will of course do it however she wants to do it... colored type or not.
OK... that's enough of this tripe for today.. it is time to go to Sioux City to get the Pioneer Princess some tofu.. or whatever that stuff is that she calls "food". :-D
TTFN mateys.