“Happy Christmas to All and All a Good Night”

The above poem is the first book I recall my mother reading to me when I was small and on her lap.

I watched The Wolf of Wall Street on Netflix. Good story but the movie itself is putrid. Over acted, over directed, and overly long.

In case I’m unable to get back here before Christmas, my wish for all is to have a merry holiday.

Worldly King William

Worldly King William

Where stood my enemies now exist I alone
Vanquished I them not with sword nor with stone

With love and respect and almighty Truth
Past these days unto my youth

Soothing words smote angry beasts
With quill and ink fought I ne’er to appease

At world’s end now I stand
Life’s worst conquered… my holy land

Poem ©2014 Ken Anderson

Tidings of Great Joy

A bit of good news for me. For the past month, I have been trying a new medication (Arava) for rheumatoid arthritis. It took three weeks for it to begin working but I now have a lot less body soreness and much reduced joint swelling than before. For the most part, I feel better than I have for the past four years. The drug has been around for a while and it does carry dangerous side effects such as severe liver damage or failure, increased chance of cancers, and I am more susceptible to tuberculosis and pneumonia. Test yesterday showed my liver function as normal. I still must have blood test once each month. So far, the only side effect I know I am having is losing more of the few hairs I have left on my head.

A Waltz

The waltz presented in this video was composed by actor Anthony Hopkins. Beautiful music by a remarkable man and performed by a remarkable orchestra.

After getting used to all the lively discussion and general bull crap on Facebook, Google+ feels like a funeral parlor when I visit there.

Been under the weather for a couple of weeks but am feeling better today. Didn’t have enough energy to write much or be on Megashot. I hope to have a bit of positive news about my health next week; doctor visit tomorrow.

Must It Forever Be A Dream ...

My thoughts are that America is more divided than it has been since 1960’s. However it isn’t split by racial makeup alone. Since so many of the racial and ethnic killings and beatings by police are being made public via video, people of all races are coming together to protest and decry the brutality by the lawmen whom we expect to protect us. I have vivid memories of newscasts showing devastating riots in many American cities after Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968. His murder and ensuing revolts are the cause for his words and deeds to finally be taken to heart by so much of the public which had previously been blinded by selfish uncaring. The murder of Robert Kennedy also caused rioting in many of the same communities just two months after Dr. King died. Some of these riots were not specifically racist; they were groundswell demands for justice and equality for all. It took great destruction, violence, and many deaths to teach America a painful and long needed lesson. It also took courage stemming from sorrow and despair. Hopefully the present unrest will be assuaged in peace with a new trust in justice for all of us. Martin Luther King’s dream echoes from his grave.

Fees for Free

Remember when you could go to your local bank and many of their services were free of fees? Free check refills, free financial advice, and free of overdraft charges to customers who didn’t make a habit of being over drawn. You could open a savings account and draw decent interest and make unfettered withdrawals whenever you wanted. Now, there is a fee for nearly everything the banks have under their control. You even have to pay them to allow you to use your own savings account funds if you choose to make more than one or two withdrawals per month. In the meantime, they are using your savings to make mortgage and auto loans and raking in several times as much interest as they pay savings account holders. Banks should be federally regulated. Personally, I use a credit union instead of a commercial bank. There, I don’t have to pay a fee each time a teller smiles.

Just ate a bunch of double-dipped chocolate covered peanuts and for some reason I am nauseous. It must be age; I used to eat more than I did today all I got was happiness.

Santa and Cranberry Sauce

My boys loved my Santa hat

Carolyn must be showing her years … she put the bowl of leftover cranberry sauce in the cabinet instead of the refrigerator. She found it two days later. Welcome to my senile world, dear wife.

We had a decent Thanksgiving although it was mostly spent by just the three of us. The boys came over late so their momma could go shopping but Sam decided his place was in the store with her. This is Sammy’s first year believing in Santa and he also has Mason believing. Mason is at the stage where his “I won’t” and “I’m not” is getting his hands smacked and his butt reddened.

I did some online Black Friday buying but it was on Saturday. I bought the latest version of Paintshop Pro for thirty bucks and it included After Shot which is a very good RAW editor for photos and there were also a few filters with the bundle. PsP comes in 64 bit and 32 bit versions. I prefer the 32 bit because I have a bunch of plugins and scripts that won’t work with the 64 bit. I don’t make a lot of photos these days but it is one area where I am still optimistic.

It looks like a lot of Black Friday sales will extend until Christmas. I just don’t understand rampant commercialism. It’s all Santa’s fault.

Happy week, y’all!