I’ve made changes to the blog. Again. Of course, that’s the point, right?

The big deal is that I’ve given in to the reality that my blog is my web site and my web site is my blog. I have therefore upgraded to the latest version of WordPress by creating an entirely new blog at the root level of my web site and importing all the old content into it. Anyone who pings www.billkubeck.com will now go right to the blog.

This makes sense for two closely-related reasons. First, my web site has no reason to exist beyond hosting my blog. Second, I never really wanted just a blog, I wanted a dynamic web site. Well, WordPress isn’t just blog software, it’s a damn fine Content Management System. By putting a WordPress blog in place as my web site, I get all I wanted. How cool is that?

I’m still rethinking everything, so there will be more changes. Promise.

-= Gryphon =-

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I will shortly be adding this graphic to the sidebar. Clicking on it takes you to DividedWeFail.org, AARP’s action group on the issues of health care and Social Security.

I have watched in growing alarm as the Federal government has worked to destroy the American social model and replace it with a medieval one in which a small elite lives in luxury while the vast majority struggle to survive. Their tactics are traditional: deprive people of economic opportunity and adequate health care. The ill and impoverished may be angry, but they don’t have the time and energy to fight back.

The root causes of this disaster must be also be addressed, but this sort of action will help keep people alive and afloat long enough to enact permanent change.

By the way, the mascot image really struck a chord with me. Notice that the creature has the front end of an elephant and rear end of a donkey. That sends a message — this campaign is bluntly political, but it is NOT partisan. This is a problem that slashes across the political spectrum.

-= Gryphon =-

Technorati : AARP, Social Security, health care, philosophy, politics, society

Astute Three Stooges fans will get the reference. It’s a mashup based on my favorite quote of all time from Curly: “I’m tryin’ to think, but nothin’ happens!” Well, I’m trying to blog, but (usually) nothing happens. I think the problem is that the more bloggable events that occur in my life, the less time and brainwidth I have to blog about them. That’s sad, perverse, annoying, and probably several other things I can’t think about right now.

Well, so be it. If I’m going to blog, I will have to do it on top of all the events that give me something to blog about.

-= Gryphon =-

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“I use not only all the brains I have, but all the brains I can borrow.”

– Woodrow Wilson

I’ve tried a lot of different content items on my Google home page. One of the few that has survived is the daily feed from The Quotations Page. The quotations range from the profound to the ridiculous, but I find something to think about in every one. It qives me a quick dose of borrowed brains every morning.

I’ve created a new Quotes of the Day page, which picks up both daily feeds from The Quotations Page. The Quotes of the Day feed is mostly witty and cynical; the Motivational Quotes of the Day feed is more serious and deliberately thoughtful. Both are worth reading, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

-= Gryphon =-

Technorati : philosophy, qotd, quotations, quotes, self improvement

I finally got off my butt and deleted my old Blogger blogs. I should have done that a while ago, but you know how it goes. Once I moved on the the new blogs, I just stopped thinking about the old ones. I was reminded of them recently when someone found the old Gryphon’s Grumbles blog and posted a comment. Okay. That motivated me to do something. I copied the comment to a new post here and deleted the old blogs.

-= Gryphon =-

Someone found my old Gryphon’s Grumbles blog recently and posted a comment describing the emblem of the college he was attending. He didn’t include the actual image, so I did some research with Google and found it. I’m posting the image here along with the text of the original comment, which was in response to the post “Why a Gryphon?” Please note that the image is copyrighted material owned by the University of Texas System.

Raul Kuri said…

“This pin depicts the banner of the banner of the College of Liberal Arts, designed by Art Professor Nancy Sclight.”

The gryphon passant guards the treasure of knowledge which the college protects and dispenses.”

The blue band symbolizes truth which the college challenges and defends.”

The earth collors symbolize the willingness of scholars to break from the traditions of the past as a way to build the future.”

UTB
xanga.com/neuroword

Thanks, Raul. That’s a nice image.

-= Gryphon =-

Coca-Cola Zero is apparently a big deal, based on the amount of effort Coke spends marketing it. Pepsi doesn’t do a “zero”, but they do Pepsi One, which is essentially the same idea. The fashion industry has embraced the concept of “Size Zero”, which we see manifested in the form of models who are starved almost to death. Despite public outcry, the runways are still populated by sweet young things who have adopted anorexia as a way of life.

What’s going on here? When did nothing become a goal worth chasing? I’m confused.

Perhaps we now have too much of so many things that nothing sounds like a good idea…..

-= Gryphon =-

Technorati : consumer, fashion, pop culture, society

I haven’t figured out what went wrong with the theme. I tried uploading a backup and that didn’t help.

I’m taking this as a sign that I need to do some major work on the blog. The version of WordPress I’m running is now way out of date. I had been putting off upgrading because it’s a rather tedious chore. Well, here’s my excuse. I’ve made backups of the entire billkubeck.com site and downloaded the latest version of WordPress. The next step will be to install the new WordPress and rebuild the theme. We’ll see how that goes.

-= Gryphon =-

Technorati : WordPress

My mother died Sunday afternoon at 2:45 PM EST. She was 85.

My sister Ali called to tell me. I was expecting it. My sister Judy had called Friday to tell me that Mom’s condition had deteriorated abruptly and that home hospice nurses would be taking care of her. The only real surprise was that she went so quickly once she started to go. I’ll count that as a blessing, actually. When your time is up, it hurts to linger.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say about this as time goes on. I’m still processing the news, on top of dealing with other massive changes in our lives.

I just want to take a moment to thank Judy and Tony Gallo, my sister and brother-in-law. Mom lived with them for quite a while. Thanks to their generosity and hard work, Mom had a safe and happy home in her last years, and was able to die among family. She deserved that after a long, and often hard, life. Judy and Tony deserve thanks and praise for giving her that.

-= Gryphon =-

Reality seems to have no respect for my grand plans. Perhaps that’s because reality knows what I need better than I do.

After my last post about the direction my life and career were going, everything took a sharp turn. I had tried more than once to interest my landlord in using me as a freelance maintenance man. This never went anywhere until about a month ago. While in the office on other business, I sang the same song again, and this time something clicked. It may have been the magic phrase “trim painting.” In any case, I was suddenly on the very short list of people to call when extra work needed to be done, especially painting. I started out painting the trim on an apartment that was being refurbished between tenants, and it has escalated from there.

In a rather short time, I have elevated myself to a position where the landlord and maintenance manager agree on something I need to deal with, and then I deal with it. My next project is to re-do the tub enclosure in an apartment where the bathroom tile is disintegrating. I talked to the tenants and worked out a plan. I’ll do all the work needed to get the tub enclosure ready for the carpenter to install a fiberglass tub kit.

This is fairly heavy responsibility. I’m front man to the tenants on fixing a serious problem with their bathroom. It boggles me a bit that the landlord and maintenance manager have so quickly decided that I can handle projects like this on my own. But I guess my experience and maturity are being recognized. I can do this, and it is being noticed.

So I now have a growing part-time career as a handyman. I love it. I forgot how much I liked to paint. It gives me the same gut satisfaction I get from cleaning, only moreso. I love to fix things. I love to clean things. I love to make things work right and look nice. Gee. This could work.

I had tried to get started doing this sort of work before, but I never found the right hook. I think I’ve found it now. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes.

-= Gryphon =-

Technorati : career, healing, intuition, philosophy, resume, self improvement, self-study