Saturday, August 26, 2023

    

               Met some asshole after work today.

         What he shared sent me backward 

            to a piece I wrote some 11 years ago.     




                      WARNING: THIS IS A LONG READ FOR YOU.

HUGS AND LOVE FROM ME.
Met some asshole in line at Speedway on Lakeshore and Vine st after work this morning after I got my wife House Blend coffee and me a 6 of Great Lakes IPA then stepping to the LINE.
He, upset about the length of the line, rambled about how he needed to get home to his family )))all this fucker had was a case of PEPSI and a 6 of Bud Light(((. He was grumbling and such and I said: "Chill, man. The issue is all the Idiots going for lottery tickets slowing shit down. It's not the staff."
He than said something I still have a hard time believing.
"Hey shithead! I gotta keep my bitch happy, got two kids with her and don't wanna write them off like my other two kids because of bitch!"
Flabbergasted, feeling a stress to use my mouth carefully, I said to him, "is there anyway I can help?"
He was then called toward a check-out person, the smell of burning hot dogs and other roller items catching hold of me. Yeah, we are in a Speedway after all...
As he finished paying for his items, he glanced at me and said this: "I hope you never make the same mistakes I have."
I nodded to him, thanking him for the advice and wished him the best....
This hit the WAYBACK MACHINE for me as I wrote something about like via friends/coworkers life-sharing's. this some 11 years ago....
This is what I wrote then.
Titled:
Deadbeat parents: Fuck you, I've got a new family.
The term Deadbeat parent, by most aspects of society, only deals in monetary values. What of the emotional destruction to the kids as their parents so easily forget them?
Ever wonder how a man could completely turn his back on his kids after spending years with them? They appear to be a near perfect, highly attentive father and husband. Neighbors would consider him devoted to his family: Sisters and brothers might say ‘this marriage and being a daddy has done him a world of good.’
I do not imply that all these men/women are Psychopaths, but one must wonder.
How is it these men/women can so effortlessly turn their backs on their own? Do they feel any guilt, shame or remorse? I have to think they don’t or can’t. One has to have a serious lack of emotion to do such a thing and ditch those they supposedly loved or at least gave an illusion to all those around them that they cared in the first place.
These is no statistical information about this: I am simply putting a theory of my own observations out there in the hopes to get responses based on personal events. Be it the child that was coldly blown off or the parent that did the distancing.
I do not subscribe to the bullshit lines we all hear so often: I just can’t stand to see that bitch! I’d rather be without the kids than deal with her. He was unfaithful and he back stabbed me to get the kids, so fuck him, let him deal with it. I need to move past this and go forward. I being proactive and take this as just a phase in life.
My favorite line: I’ve got a new family now and I need to work on that…
These people are twisted in the highest order, and therefore, deserve some examination.
How is it their new mates cannot see the simple, glaring fact: If they did this to those before them, what makes them think the same will not occur again?
Love conquers all? This new love is better, and will last. I’d never treat him/her like their ex, and they’ll appreciate it all the more and stay with me and my kids. I’m a much better lover! Who in their right mind would walk away from that?
They so readily fall for this person that ‘sacrificed their own kids to be with me and mine.’ They tell there friends this, and so willingly believe it they have little idea what they are getting into.
These people have become the new, soon to be abused, next conquest for the Psychopath. And they are taking their kids in tow into this world of lies and disorder. God, or some higher power help them if they have a child by this person as nothing can create such an emotional wasteland like that of the predator.
Granted, this is not always the case as some people are so emotionally fucked up and scarred that they simply don’t know their own mind and are fools to love and the feeling it gives them. This works both ways as both can give up their own for something they believe lacking in their lives and wish for something new, so bright and shining: to make them feel alive and important again.
Let me state this: I pass no judgment on these people. The Psychopathic or the wandering fools that place a ‘new love’ above all else. They both leave scars on all those involved and place themselves above all else. They are both equally selfish and are sociopaths in various levels of degree. Small wonder the children of these human train wrecks grow up with bonding issues with peers, teachers and authority in general.
They have been betrayed by those they loved the most: their own parent. Distance can hurt and kill a Childs development. These kids can feel so badly as they think they did something so horribly wrong to make the parent that cut them out of their young lives. With guilt, shame, and some lack on their part, they grow up with these thoughts that only grow larger with each passing year that it does not get addressed.
Perhaps they waste all emotions in their young lives. The past they’ve lived with takes over, the hurt encompasses them, a futility in the most innocent of love and they grow like a house built on sand versus good bedrock. They grow cold, slowly losing touch with the good things, like tossing a ball with dad or baking cookies with mom. Feeling nothing is better than feeling good to be hurt someday.
As mom/dad bring some new person into their lives, and seeing this happen repeatedly, they get a feeling that love is merely temporary and grow with that knowledge. After all, one parent left them for some other family and forgot about them. Left them with nothing, or worse, a lame explanation: You’ll understand when you grow up…
They will get older. With that getting older they have learned the value of relationships: They are Bic Lighters. A flame that burns briefly and when it passes, just toss it out and get a new one.
When I volunteered for a youth center for a span of about 5 years, hearing teens talk about their parents and those that left them: the myriad of relationships the custodial parent had, they got the feeling, ‘fuck it, just go find somebody else’.
Emotions? These kids have little need for things that brought them pain. Get close to someone that will be gone in a space of months.
I believe this is where a new generation of Psychopaths are born.
Keep this in mind, and again I state, 4% of the people of the United States are Psychopaths. This accounts for roughly 3 to 4 million people. This number is growing with each generation. Mostly nonviolent sociopaths, they have a strong sense of this: Fuck them before they fuck you. Ditch the bitch before she drops the hammer on me. I’ll take him for what I can before he’s unfaithful to me and chucks me to the curb.
They learn to use others with little or no remorse. They use this skill in school, relationships and jobs as they progress through life. These kids have a cold, dead look in their eyes, a ‘soulless look’ when questioned about an action they did.
They lose all hope over time with so many failed relationships on their parents part. They feel somehow to blame for this. This happens because most fucked up parents would find it easier to blame them instead of themselves for ’this’ relationship dying.
And this seems to start with one of their biological parents splitting and cutting them off without so much as a goodbye.
If this child’s issues are ignored, neglected or compounded by the staying parents inability to take responsibility for their own actions, they will grow with a cracked-mirrored look at life.
Monkey see, monkey do.

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Where do we go from here???

                              How far does this go???

           Transgender in Society today.

       Hi everyone! Just another thought from me,,,

At what point have we reached in our lives in society when considering the insane/irrational behaviors of others that becomes a rational way of thinking that is forced on us all to fuckingly embrace understand it an

d praise and acknowledge their strength for proclaiming they as they would call us haters for our beliefs?!?
I guess WOKE means nothing to many of us in how they think of us,,,
<<<<< GOING FORWARD<<<<<<<
Where is IT okay for a clearly male student in a junior high school to be able to stroll into the girls room and think it's okay as he HAVING the RIGHT TO DO??? WOULD THE SCHOOL ADMINSTRATORS say to the 12-15 year old girls how it's okay as he may have a PENIS (PERHAPS SPECULATE) he's not really going to use it against you. so it's okay!,,,
Imagine a school girls swim team when a student formerly known as Henry, now called Twila Night (born male, 5 inches taller than the girls, previously failed try outs for the mens team opted for change in sexual venue.
HOW MANY OF YOU WOULD FIND THIS ACCEPTABLE???
But hey, all's okay these days as all can be what they want so long as be accepted....
I AM THE SON OF MARION AND TED DARUS, GRANDCHILD OF ORLON AND JENNY STURDIVANT.
I really don't think they'd think highly of this shift in culture and education.
Thanks for reading,
Mark, mark in honing, FLYINGSCOOTER and a squirrel/.

Tuesday, August 22, 2023


         GOING BROKE WHEN YOU WENT WOKE: THE DEATH OF BUD LITE AND DECLINE OF ANHEUSER BUSCH. 


Hi all
Just throwing this out there for consideration and would like feedback if you could grant me such. If uncomfortable, share your thoughts in a FB MSG, and I promise your name will never be shown though your comments would.
I wish to write an article about the death of a Brand that was the number 1 Leader in Beer Sales for nearly 20 years in the United States. Being highly respected for its light-hearted and hilarious TV and Radio commercials it totally controlled, sustained their share to the sales of Beer in the USA. >I knew so many watching the Super Bowl more for the commercials than the actually game itself. <
My working title is called: Going Broke when WOKE: The Death of BUD LIGHT and the Decline of Anheuser Busch .
They losing over $28 Billion in Market Value in just 5 months when they marketed and endorsed a man/woman-wish-to-be named Dylan Mulvaney that had over 10 million followers that, about 80%, of which were well under the United States drinking age for beer consumption.
Thanks for reading this.
I hope I get some feedback on this.
The first beer I ever drank was a Budweiser on a family vacation at a place called Bakers Motel in Ohio. I was about 6-8 years old. Mom would go to the bathroom, be called by my sisters, and I'd grab what she was drinking and guzzle it. (this occurred for a long while....) SOO HAPPY MEMORIES OF A TIME SO FAR AGO! (I am crying as I write this as I miss my parents so very much,)
>>> SIDENOTE: At the Bakers Motel we would always have adjoining rooms, one for my elder sisters and I'd stay with my parents. <<<<
Eventually mom thought my Father was doing her beer and she snapped at him: "DAMN IT, TED! THE COOLER IS IN BETWEEN US! STOP DRINKING MY BEER!!!"
Dad said to her: "Honey, I haven't touched your beer!'"
It was around then they began looking around our room , and from what my parents told me, much later on, found me sitting in a corner and giggling for no apparent reason and trying to figure out how to walk in a straight line.
This being said: Budweiser contains a memory in my Heart.
I guess like giants they must fall....
Thanks for reading.
Hugs and love to all
FLYINGSCOOTER, MARK IN HONING

Saturday, March 11, 2023

Teach the Workers to be players unlike any other company, Conn-Selmer.

             


                   My Proposal to my company.  The last Brass Musical Co in America.

  

       I work at Conn-Selmer in Eastlake, Ohio USA. We are the LAST brass musical instrument manufacture  in the USA. We Hand-Craft (seriously speaking, everything we do is HandCrafted like the Amish only nothing we do tastes like cheese. ) 

      In my 7 years there I've worked in a few departments though mostly in the Honing Dept. In honing we work about a 0.0002 tolerance, which is saying this: Take a hair from your head and slice it into a hundred width sections. 

       All of us at Conn-Selmer work to our abilities.  

     I believe that is something to be proud of in all regards. 

     Our hands create a childs musical dreams an attempt for reality. 

     What parent or grand parent wouldn't wish their own to have the right tool for the job and make them desire to learn and rock on further?!?! 

                      This is what I sent to Conn-Selmer on their Corporate Community wall: 

          Ever want and desire a new aspect of training in a workplace that by far would exceed anything you've ever known?

Have you ever thought you'd work in a place that has the ability to teach you so much about music from professional musicians?
Sure, you and I all make the components of the Trumpets, Trombones, Sousa ,Tuba and French Horns and Rough Hone their valves and pistons, Polish and buff them to eventually be sent from the lacquer oven going toward Final Assembly.
Would our Company consider this proposal?
Imagine our family of workers spending an hour (unpaid) after work to be taught to play the instruments we make.
Think about it for a moment...
Is there another company on Earth that could offer this???
I think not, but let us think further...
Imagine an intern program of dedicated Local High School student marching band players learning the 'nuts and bolts' of the AX they wield before a crowd.
I'd absolutely express the Play Testers should be paid for their instruction to others if they are willing and have the time to schedule it into their lives.
I think many of us would love this as a benefit as few of us have any real inclination as to how our End Products impacts Globally. >>what that solder joint translates at the end.. that polish/wiping impacts the Final Assembly aspect.<<<
Conn-Selmer Cooperate, what do you think of my proposal?
Sincerely,
Mark in Honing, Eastlake Ohio.

       

Saturday, December 3, 2022

A Week COVID my companion...

 

 




Hi all! Feeling far better than I have in the last 8-9 days.
Went 9 hours today without falling asleep or needing such or fainting. I am grateful for this.
I should be able to go back to work this Tuesday given clearance from my DR. I miss work as I miss my family there at Conn-Selmer. Sure, we disagree and argue and fight, but what family doesn't.... I miss you all so much! Each and everyone of you is important to me: Your smiles, grimaces, and dead stares... The sound of your voices, the roar of your laughter near me. Everything matters in this life and I cherish every part of our interactions.
My Covid Adventure has taught me a few things after it took THIS BITCH nearly three years to catch my ass in its crosshairs..
1. I have no sense of taste. I can smell everything, but all i can taste is pepper and some traces of orange from juice. Turkey, ham, beef only differ based on texture alone... strange to me, but true. Root beer, Tea, coffee, IPA's, beef broth and milk etc go down over my tongue as flavorless as water.
2. I have lost weight. Go figure on this one. When you cannot taste you are seldom hungry. I merely eat to maintain myself. I know I need to eat and do so. It all tastes the same and that being NOTHING. I have lost about 15lbs in a week
3. BLOOD PRESSURE ISSUES: a day before I tested positive I took my BP meds as usual. About an hour later, after Gretchen left for work I felt faint and bodily banked off many things before hitting my puter chair... I then crawled to the couch to sleep again.... That scared the shit out of me as I had not been drinking IPA/s or any other influence that might cause this...
4. Blood Pressure Issues part2: when I awoke I was curious as to what happened. I decided to take my Blood pressure before taking my meds this days. What I saw amazed me. My blood pressure was around normal/ 117/72 around the time I would take my meds. Had that been the case the day before would explain what fainting occurred. Apparently, Covid has HELPED my BP! ) I did say this to my DR during a Phone Appt and she did not seemed surprised. She likes the fact that I own a Great BP and Pulse Oximeter to monitor both Gretchen and I. I have not taken any of my BP in over 6 days as I do not need them.
5. Sight: My sight has improved during this last week. I can read without glasses of any type. Who knows as to why...
6. NEXT CHAPTER. I guess we'll see.
Thanks for reading this,
Hugs and love you all.

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Life in Dark Water. (life during a 16 month lay-off during COVID 19) Part 1. The Beginning...




 


                                                             Life in Dark Water

                                                                    Part 1


                                                   Setting the WayBack Machine.

                                                       Getting a call that change things. 


                  I received a call from my Boss Kim R on a sunny Sunday around late March 2020  She said our plant is shutdown due to Covid and we'd get a callback when things reopened there. I expressed my thoughts to her as we spoke, saying I didn't think it's going to end quickly... I wished her and her children the best as life as we knew everything was shifting into areas not friendly nor nice. Explaining that  24 hour stores were now  closing at 9-10 pm, Zoo's, Museums and Sporting events got smacked down. She didn't truly believe me, and that's okay as she is younger than me, perhaps not having my background of seeing things differently.  Life often works that way. 

          To her credit I can say this about her: She rose through the ranks starting at young age, around high graduation. Her mom worked there and recently retired after some 20+ years of service. She did this in the company based on her ability to learn new things and skill and sincere desire to succeed in the only American Brass Musical Instrument company in the USA. I RESPECTED HER totally, though not always agreeing with her ideas I always gave them a shot. No harm in trying, I'd think. 

            Fact is: I was hired by her in 2015. I remember her saying to others in the department I would later be taken into: "Hey! This guy can read micrometers!" I just smiled... 

           I had many a boss stroll in and out of Final Assembly/Honing over a slim number of years. I liked most of the bosses I've had there.

              She held a belief in an utterly flawed system of operations in American Companies: (If you do long productive hours, go into supervision based on skill and solid employment history, the Company would take of you as you did them.)   Sadly, I stopped having a sense of Company/Corporate loyalty some 15-20 years ago as I saw it disintegrate into sheer Nothingness of Time spent based on Share-Holder desires and things getting twisted even in places not even on a stock market. 

             Ironically, she never got called back to work at Conn-Selmer.   

                             Just after that Sunday phone call...                                                                 

              I told my wife I was now   laid-off from work at Conn-Selmer and that I would apply for Unemployment benefits the next day.

              My wife looked at me said she wasn't surprised as EVERYTHING was getting shut down. I thought  The Schools, stores, restaurants, bars and, well, everything is clamped down into a holding/closer pattern not unlike    early Paris under the occupation of the Nazi Party during WWII.  I looked at her, told her I love her and it'll be what it is.  

            I told her I'd apply for unemployment  tomorrow, the next day after being informed. Looking concerned, she managed a smile and we hugged each other. She asked me how long did I think this would last.  (looking back I am not sure if she was asking about the lay-off  duration or the Covid effect,) I told her that I thought this was going to last a long time though I wasn't sure why I felt this way.  Yeah, I didn't know I'd be laid-off for 16 months and when going back there the 'Great Resignation'  of 2021 would occur. NOTE: I will write about this movement down the road as I think it epic in people standing up and saying: STOP PAYING ME SHIT WAGES! 

                


                            Next Day???  Applying for Ohio Unemployment: 

              Well, it took a great deal longer than anyone's conception of a 'next day' belief reality would occur.  Day's turned into weeks trying to apply for Ohio Unemployment as their system kept crashing during the mid-application process. 

              I understood why this happened and explained to many I knew feeling frustrated as I was why Their Crashes occurred.  I would say to them that their system was NOT created to have so many requests hitting them at one time.  I remember it taking me some 4 weeks to fully get my application to go thru via the internet and repeatedly calling them on the phone...

             Granted, I did learn this:  IF You have a Smart Phone equipped with a headphone jack and a really good head-set..... If you are stuck on hold waiting for REP to help, go hands free and fly sims, play games and read news while waiting for human to say 'Hello'. 

         After about 4 weeks, my claim was accepted after speaking to a sweet kind phone rep from Akron, Ohio.  In all honesty, she was wonderfully understanding to deal with. She was kind, empathetic and funny during our conversation as well as professional. ABBY212, YOU ROCKED IT!!!! 

              I'd get money.  

              I'd delve into gaming simulations, talking to people on the phone, and journey into waters I have swam in before, but vastly different in some regards.  That being a love of faith and ironically IPA's. Yeah, I also did my share of 'hacking." 

             Hey, when you got a lot of knives and forks, you gotta cut into something? Right/ 

               I tried volunteering for animal humane societies to clean cages/walk and feed animals but they were locked down too. I sincerely felt hurt by that....                                                                                                                       

               Thank you for reading this. Thank you for your patience with me.

                                           End of Part 1 (Life in Dark Water) 

                                   Part II will go into day-to-day events and how they played over time some 440 days of ever-adjusting life of an extrovert that became an introvert.  

                                    It will also hopefully show some beauty.  My Smoke and Storm. 

                                     


                                 May this song bring happy memories to us older folk and an inspiration to those that never heard it before. 

         








   

 

Friday, February 18, 2022

CAN I STILL PLAY WITH MADNESS? Celebrating ten years of writing across our Blue Marble.

                                         


                                     CAN I PLAY WITH MADNESS???

Wowza! I started this blog nearly  ten years ago and am amazed people still read it across our blue marble to this day! 

Over 90 Countries, 80K people.


 I cannot both express my gratitude for their reading my words and sadness/apologies  for my lack of writing the last few years.

Well, it's my intentions to kick it up this year as  EVERYTHING seems to going to Hell on the heels of Covid, Russia invading the Ukraine and the cost of food steadily rising.... 


Clearly, I have a lot of work, research and editing to do down the road. And I suck at editing my own work...

Sorry for my lapse....

                         I ask myself again: 'Mark/FLYINGSCOOTER, do we really want to go here again??? Do you want to delve into writing and play with the madness of trying to find meaning in areas where there is little to none?'

                              BEEN TOO LONG. DAMN RIGHT I AM GOING TO. 

         Reasons why I feel ready to do so... 

      Well, I think being back at work at Conn-Selmer for several months after being laid off for 16 months >being back working for 4 months<  has taught me how to interact with others once again and hopefully making those around laugh again. For Christ's sake, the lockdown shit made me turn into an introvert! Damn scary place for me to be since I was 16 years old. Virtual paranoia could have taken place, and am grateful it didn't. 

           >>>For fucks sake, I spent so many months of my life during the 'shutdown Covid bullshit'  where my only human interactions were based at gas stations (HUGE THANKS TO THE PEOPLE AT SPEEDWAY Vine and Lakeshore while getting Smokes, Coffee and IPA's) and Save-A-Lot Vine st.) You all made a massive influence on my 20 minutes out of the house as all else was closed. 

                  I sincerely  have to thank Cliff S, Pennie C and Ed K for talking on the phone and sharing with me during our Submarine Existence while on lay-off, shutdown/lockdown/isolated.  If I hadn't had you to talk to day to day, I would have gone insane. 

              I also need to thank my wife Gretchen.  While I was off work, long before her job kicked her to curb, she saw me do nothing except household chores/collecting unemployment/playing computer games and flying sim planes.  The first few weeks I shared with her how I was going Slightly Mad as I had no face-to-face interactions as I had at work and seriously missed being alive amongst others/having an audience and such/feedback. I was truly going INSANE and would have gone if not for the above mentioned people.    Only when she got laid off did she fully understand what living in dark water means...  One week into her lay-off she asked me as we were sitting in out computer room; "How do you handle this, Mark?" I simply answered, I have friends i talk to on phone and at gas stations....

I suggested she hear this song,....


 Also this song ran with me off and on during the last ten years... Love the words and music... "Give me the Strength to hold my up and spit in their face..." 




               Been a long time since I played with the madness of writing the truth as I find and express it...

Sidenote: I feel younger as I type this. Must be a fire burning somewhere inside me.... 

         Sorry for my absence. 

Thank you for your patience. 

-Mark/FLYINGSCOOTER




Monday, October 4, 2021

Babes of this Modern Age: Mommy, when will it be safe outside?

                                  Babes of this Modern Age:
                                          "Mommy when will it be safe outside?"
   

                   A young child wakes up on a Saturday morning, her long blond locks cascading about as she leaps from bed to meet a new day. Quickly dressing in proper clothing, stopping briefly at her bathroom to relieve, she ventures downstairs aiming toward the kitchen.
         Kitchen, to her, is where mommy and daddy are right now, love and smiles and fill her heart. . She can't wait to see them again.
                   
           

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Imagine How Children See This Time during COVID-19... Part !

             Hey, Mommy, Daddy can we go the playground????



         Your child of varying age and striving athletic, academic   has been without school, socialization from friends, and their daily routine is completely messed up .
         Yeah, sure, they were somewhat fine with it the first week as to them it was like a vacation that sometimes occurs when their school burns to the ground from a fire or gets wiped out from a hurricane, or perhaps, temporarily shuttered after some shooting event.
         First off,  let me please  explain both my daughters are adults.   I so fondly remember taking them to the Cleveland  zoo,  Cleveland Metroparks for hikes. Teaching them rollerblading and such both in a park and USA Skates on Dennison and Ridge road.  My youngest keeping up with me as she rode a Big Wheel around the West 25th area of Cleveland.   My trying to simply watching them learn and experience, fail and fall and to eventually to figure out balance as they bulleted around smooth pavement created memories to this very day seem vastly important to me now. To share with the hopes you can find you may discover the same within your mind and heart.

        How do you tell your kids something like: "NO, we can't go the playground right now, honey. We've been told that could be not healthy right now."
         Wide-bright-eyes child looks into your eyes and asks why; "Why not, mommy??? "

           "Because we're not allowed to." she/he frustratingly states, yet not raising voice in volume. Unsure in what they should say next, lost in a world of uncertainty. Looking toward their feet, feeling highly fragile and hurting...
            They tell their Kinder: "We'll find something fun, my babies! We will!"
       
                I hope I can help  with this....

               Our GLOBAL CHILDREN CAN LEARN from much when we share with one another ONLINE is you take the time and patience.
   

                    Enjoy these links at a zoo near you! Most have live-cams to see animals walking and living about. I guess this is the best we can do these days/daze, which is better than nothing, I pray.
    I love all of you everywhere. My Lord taught me this and am thankful for it.
       Hang tough and find happiness in the simplest things that make you smile.
https://resourcelibrary.clemetzoo.com/Animal/Details

https://www.akronzoo.org/animals

Sorry if I slighted you, Gillian, Yvette and so many others as all I had to find and share came from  TripAdvisor dot Com. 
South Africa
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g293740-Activities-c48-South_Africa.html

Belgium. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g188634-Activities-c48-Belgium.html

Germany: https://www.zoo-berlin.de/en

India: https://www.holidify.com/collections/zoos-in-india

China: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g294211-Activities-c48-China.html

Japan: https://wow-j.com/en/Allguides/other/sightseeing/00353_en/

Russia: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g294459-Activities-c48-Russia.html

Ukraine: https://zoo.kiev.ua/en/

Iceland: https://mu.is/is/

Jamaica: https://www.jamaicazoo.org/

Spain, Trinidad and Tobago: https://www.destinationtnt.com/emperor-valley-zoo/

Colombia: https://seecolombia.travel/blog/2014/04/cali-zoo/

Switzerland:  https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/experiences/summer-autumn/zoo-animal-experiences/zoos-search/

I Sincerely thank you for reading this first beginning of getting back to writing.
Please excuse errors in spelling and a lack of an editor to fix things.

a few credits:
Thanks to TripAdvisor for zoo links.

Huge thanks to a band named Volbeat! Their song gave me an energy to begin writing and sharing again.  This was the song that fired me up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VaK0aXsDM8

Thanks again from me!

Feels good to be back writing again.
-Mark
.










         

Monday, September 4, 2017

Welcome To The Modern and Improved version of the USA!



                                Welcome To The Modern and Improved version of the USA!  Year 2017.
                                                                            by
                                                           Mark William Darus.
                                                my wish you listen to this music while
                                                              reading this if you can/
                                               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYvpBsLhVlI
                                                        you may have to open another window. So Sorry
                         Photo/foto title: We're so divided in our desires...
   
                    We as a land, Americans all standing as one, <<< I really do not believe this last line, but hey, I can spew fecal matter from my fingertips as easily as any meager Capitalist seeking a paycheck or Politician wishing appointment to office. `
                                          After the Obama Administration did little with his somewhat lack luster attempts to mend bridges over racial gaps, American Police officers were caught beating down Blacks, Afro Americans and >>> please forgive this term I write: NIGGERS.<<<< .
                              First off and   leading to  other observations I wish to share.
                    1. I am so glad he WAS NOT assassinated!!!  Had he been slayed, it would have been devastatingly ferocious far surpassing the JFK shooting laying on Lee Harvey Oswalds  bullshit doorstep.  He, Barrack Obama, (sp?)  got elected simply because the Bush Administration (and Republican party wanted Sarah Palin as a Vice Pres candidate . Hmmm, electoral votes not so good in Alaska, no?)  placed America in such wastelands only a Democrat could have won.
                  Tamir Rice killing Cleveland Ohio
               
                     2. We ( USA)  as a Country  had a Black/Afro-American/Person-of-colour/ etc  and so forth as A President and history would twist my words, and what really  occurred?  Well, somehow/someway racial hatred got worse over our LAND OF THE FREE AND HOME OF THE BRAVE.  Black people got a beat down/killed while the worse offending  white Americans could show in video was merely just  a bunch of  southern good old boys talk about shooting shotguns to road signs getting pulled over while reciting their ABC:S as Uh-b-dee-Llllmno .  Yeah, that is total crap. Even my dog prays for shelter from the storm that may eventually destroy the United States of America. Okay, i may have exaggerated about my Frodo.

               
                       3.  An American Nurse Alex Wubbels correctly does her job and gets slam around by Cops/Law Enforcement officers/New Age Storm Troopers. I find this both disgusting and hilarious at the same time  and she will become quite rich.
                        FOR CHRISTS SAKE! I value Nurses far above the value of a Doctor. My mother was an RN, so that may taint my opinion..                    
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=813&v=MHWXqZQ2_Rw
                        Sorry: do we not have Privacy Laws and such? Did this Nurse not follow the Rules and Regulations of her Profession? I so hope she is NOT FOUND DEAD IN A POLICE CELL OF A SUICIDE EVENT.  
           From me to Alex Wubbels:  I speak for myself here: YOU ROCK!!!! Thank you for holding your duty higher against thugs.
                       
                 
                 SIDENOTE  from a pathway so filthy and disgusting. Consider the absurdity of this event  Ladies and Gents. And the rightful party lost this case. Another case of our Country turned sideways...
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/12/melissa-nelson-dental-assistant-fired-for-being-irresistible-is-devastated/

                      4. We all share a space of real estate given to  us at any given moment in time. It's up to us how we wish to share our interactions between us.
                              We can be kind, gentle and patient with one another. Be willing and open-hearted to be a student and teacher.
                                                   >>>> OR<<<<<
                    WE could be some cock sucking, bitch ass texting cunt running over geese on Euclid Avenue, or some absent-minded fool that values some bizarre aspect of Speedway Points over  human Life-forms in a parking lot.
                              >>>>> DO WE NOT HAVE A CHOICE IN OUR DAILY LIVES?<<<
                                 
                     May we all live in peace and harmony. Look beyond racial bullshit without meaning.
                   
                      I hope and pray for such. >this shot of me taken by a lady Georgian some three years ago in Akron Ohio.<<<    
               
                     I wish to thank my wife, Gretchen for dealing with me at times like tonight. Gretchen, I love you as much as I can. I am grateful for having stay with me over the last 17 years.      

                    I also wish to extend gratitude toward the readers of my blog that may read this after well over a year original writing and found this.  So many years ago you kept me alive across our Blue Marble by your viewings/readings. I am thankful to you all!
     


                 

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

My 2016 Entry (part 1) : Distant Ships Reaching a Horizon: My First Seven Years of School.



                     Distant Ships Reaching a Horizon: My First Seven Years of School.
                                                                   by
                                                      Mark William Darus.

                                      NOTE: THIS DRAFT HAS NO EDITING. I'M CATCHING GLIMPSES AND WRITING THEM AS THEY OCCUR.... SORRY.......

                                   I was, in Late 1960's thru early 1970's,  in 'Special Classes'.  Grades 1 thru  6th grade. I did a second stint in the 6th grade because I was profoundly lucky to have a teacher named William Stuchal that tried halfway thru my 6th grade to integrate me with the mainstream classroom system. Being honest, looking back to such twisted memory, I could see how he thought this and learned to love this man. Between My Mother, Marion and him, they petitioned the Cleveland Public School to HOLD me back a year.

                 

                      Yeah, in modern day words when thinking of 'Special Class' I was supposedly some slack-jawed, drooling idiot that either bit people on their ankles or kicked, gauged or clawed at others.  Yet, according to my sisters or my own memory I was not like that at all. During that first seven years of my educational life, the only thing I truly remember was a teacher in kindergarten by the name Ms. Steele that liked to watch us boys piss into urinals.  (Yeah, that'd be a monumental lawsuit these days, but not in the 1960's. And, no, I'm not looking for a movie of the week Lifetime Channel extravaganza, but looking back it could be one.

           IMAGINE A NARRATIVE:  How her glaring eyes locked on our parts, yellow flowing , our stance. >do you feel a little sick at this?<  Woman would state as video shows this: "She intently watched each and every, perhaps, overloaded boy pass his liquid by-product to urinal. Inhaling deeply, maybe with a hand in her pant-legs, gasping a sigh....." and so much more bullshit could I share gazing back, though it was true then.

                       Well, boys of the late 1960's/early 70's didn't. If we had to go, we just let it out. We just let it flow and occasionally wondered why some woman was watching us piss more intently than our fathers who attempted to teach us to learn proper aim and ability whilst remembering to place the seat down afterward. We, then as boys, often laughed about it. Joked about it as boys of that ERA LONG AGO past would share National Geographic Magazines with one another showing topless Aborigine women dancing about as freely as Current teens would share a Cougar/MILF Anal Freedom website would do these days.

              >>>>> And I am sorry, my work/life and Church family: But, yeah, the only thing that has changed with Pornography is the delivery method. Much quicker these days...  <<<<<
                   

                        Note: This will be convoluted and sketchy at best with my recall.

          AUTHORS NOTE: 08232017 finding this as a draft. I'm not embarrassed so lets toss it out there. I seriously cannot believe i was the only perverted this way in a day when parents didn't sue school systems. Not sure what this means for others decades away from day. Consider those like me that didn't become rapists OR rich with parents backwhen  with a lawyer in pocket.
              We just grew and did with what we had.
               A few of liked to make bombs, which was fine back that many decades ago. No one got hurt though craters were created and a few windows were wasted during the concussion ring splayed out.  I was about 12-14 at that time.

               
               

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Introduction: What became of 2015?.. What have you learned and grown from it?

   
                                                                    Introduction.
                           What became of 2015?.. What have you learned and grown from it?
                                              words and Christ given thoughts for sharing
                                                                       by
                                                     Mark William. Darus,

         

                        Looking back on 2015....

                        As a new year approaches dawning, what will you remember? What memories will you cherish as others you cast far and away?  Considering all the interactions you've had with so many walking/talking and dare i say thinking humans, how many of the 31,536,000 seconds of a years time will take hold in your heart?

                       Okay, at least as far as I'm concerned, it's a totally loaded question. Sorry, but hey, you know the way i write.

                         As I look back on twenty 15, now listening to a band called Gunship: Tech Noir, (which my daughter Becki gave me a listen from her husbands Razors when I saw her last Wednesday.   Over a year and half  had passed without our  togethernous. So good it was to see her again with my eyes, to feel her embrace so missed over time and life as diversions,  we try so hard to justify and usually  fail  over time. That once bright and shining road of  best intention sometimes sweeps down murky desolate pathways, often causing separation. Becki, my youngest daughter, I am sorry for this. A day never passed without thinking of you. How you were doing and things you saw and felt).
                     

                                    Let's take a quick peek back at 2 zero 1 five:

                     ISIS remains doing its thing across the globe.They so loving killing others for the benefit of doing, forgetting their own rules say they should first try to  convert before killing.  This group of Islamic extremists slayed hundreds/thousands (this depending on your news source, American media tends to dumb this down to lessen impact. Why do you think they'd do this?

                    Being on Fbook and having a blog hitting over eighty countries, i have many friends from countries that often send me news articles from their  countries. Needless to say, whom should we believe: the site wanting us to be more updated with newer and better apps or the one that simply tells us as THEY saw it?

                   France took several hits this year as ISIS raged on, as did many other countries that did not hit the mainstream  news with lives being lost like a childs tears in the rain.  I prayed as I heard about  each of their events. I prayed recklessly as i think a good christian should do: YOU PRAY LIKE YOUR HEART IS A SHOTGUN OF THE LIVING  LORD! I spewed, chucked, heaved my meager souls wishes to all involved, blasted my hopes and prayers for them to find the  peace  of christ, and if not with HIM, than with something that also breeds a sense of Hope and Love toward others instead of some disgusting ever-igniting fuel for vengeance and body-count-payback bitch hunkering over their weaker shoulder.

                  I prayed aloud as I do more often than not. Oddly, as two zero 1 five played out in my life, that became harder to do in the general course of a day in my life, In time, we;ll get to that.



                Damn! Sorry I forgot about the myriad of shooters hitting American Soil wasting lives in spree, serial, passion, and homicidal urges, mass killings . USA SHOOTINGS 2015 , Maybe some of  these events hit your radar via radio, TV or internet, perhaps catching your heartstrings for a  slender fragment of your day.    I hope you took a time and a word in prayer., or not. It's okay.

                  It really is okay.   Learning is a life long event for those who find an open mind and heart within themselves. Easier learning   for those tossing pride to the curb as well as materialism, leaving 'The Comfort Zone" and seeking a deeper, more spiritual life/light to guide them,  I'm not saying you have to hit Rock Bottom  to find this state, but I'm told it helps.

                 A few years back, in an email (nearly 12 pages long)I sent my eldest sister Holly, I told her that for those like me, there is no such thing as Rock Bottom. I told her we'd   neither acknowledge  nor allow such event to  become or define us and we'd merely continue about and trundle onward for whatever reason propelled us.



                 In that email sent to Holly, which she said was the most lucid thing I had ever written, coming from a Grad of CWRU with a degree in Journalism, created in early 2012,  came as a result of bipolar meds taking hold, granting me a focus to write once again. I thanked my savior, he had given me a chance to express myself clearly. It was from that email to my sister Holly I created my Psychopathy blog on a dismal Saturday at Progressive Insurance. I had thought: hmmm, if she thought that email was good, maybe others might like or learn from what I have to share...

                Granted, I am   a textbook example of an asshole. Seriously, ask anyone that truly knows me and they'll tell you that about me.  One  that  believes in hope, positive thoughts and enduring personal elements all should have to find a better day for others to share.  Well, I have no issue being called an asshole, dickhead, Conservative Republican fuckwad, Suppository of Democrat Party Agenda  or anything else  for that matter, so long as I do/say what i believe in my walk with Jesus and his Dad.  God and his Kid give me strength, an ability to persevere, stand tall, hold true and keep an open mind toward and a heartfelt  respect for others.



                 Doesn't your Higher Power grant you the same if you're strong enough to embrace it?

                 Be True to yourself....

                 Hugs,
                 MWD

               

                           

                         


   

                 

               

                 

                       

                     How many of us have been here?