The Coffee Guy's blog

Averment to Amuse, My Guilty Pleasure

It has been some time, for some reason, for someone, for some things to be discussed in the open.  The time is nigh.  I reveled in the atmosphere of company, the brightness of oration, and presence overall.

I try to keep my cards close to my chest most times, living alone for 20 years made me that way.  I have tried openness and have difficulties disgorging my ways and methods.  The mind works the way it was developed.  Both by nature and nurture.  Once hardwired the dendrite connections are hard to alter.  I see things I saw as a child and still seem to interpret them similarly. 

“Whether it’s a symphony or a coal mine, all work is and act of creation and comes from the same source: from the inviolate capacity to see through one’s own eyes ----which means: the capacity to perform a rational identification---which means: the capacity to see, to connect and make what had not been seen, connected and not seen before.” . . . “He doesn’t know how he created his work or why, it just came out of him spontaneously, like vomit out of a drunkard.”…” Does affection make one a coward?”… A.R. Atlas Shrugged

In creating, the mind has its own motor, there is no steering wheel or gear shift.  The impetus comes from both within, and from outside stimuli.  A muse is one.  Valuable and unattainable.  Revered and admired. Nothing more.  Admiration and affection are undeniable and undefended.  As time progresses the ideas do not travel a roadway or direction, they morph and disfigure, transforming into something foreign from the original sin.

Now I must look to the world I wonder in.  Where will my failings foist forward to discover.  What will I see, envision, develop, conjure, and bring to essence?  Where will my mind drift to as the sands of time pour from the hourglass of my existence?  Each grain falls and joins the past.  Not the same, but inalienably identical in their differences.  As I delve into explorations the mind always travels the routes of the past, pondering benefits and features seen and unseen.

I do not apologize for my weaknesses.  A smile, a smirk, a line, a look, all drive the motor of thought.  Cogito Ergo sum.  It is said.  I agree, and want to learn more. Whence cometh thou with thine eyes.  I could not disagree, my drift was asea.  But I posit more from less, breadth from width, and ascension from a rise.  My inner outermost raison d’etre was not cunning.  It was appreciation.   Amazed in appreciation, in awe at the verve, essentially drinking in that which is presented.

I am I.  He who knows better but cannot do better.  Hopefully I amuse.

A nice pour over Patricia, make it pure Java.

Mark Hull Du Calumet, First of the coterie of York, Son of Don, Scion of Karl in the House of Pfunkstadt, Connubial of Suzanne, Yeoman to the Hun of Honda, Prevailing in the Seat of Hespeler, Having been again to Australia, and now Grandad's Land, and for some, from The Dark Side. Not am Main nor ab der Elba, but down the Donau, and with Turkish Chai. #garagelurker2019, also A.C., Cee Minus, Amused.

Cut Long, Shorten Never

The cut that is less than expected will lead to a repetitious existence.  There are of course courses that run short of expectations; never expect them to be longer.  The optics of myopia are manifold.  Bumping and cajoling on our way makes the trip feel longer.  So why is the shortcut so attractive to so many?

It may be perceived that the route less protracted will angle you to success mor aptly. This is a falsehood.  And as all good hoods, should be avoided.  The passing of advantage passes to the experienced.  Experience is that which gives us knowledge.  With that in hand, your passage becomes more delectable. 

It is oft postulated that the distance afforded between two distant spots can be ascertained by a line that has no curves.  As boring as that is, I do not travel that way.  No, boring is not my way, short neither.  How then does efficiency and effectiveness not go the route of directness.  They both cover the interesting and meaty path.  Information gleaned and glowing form this satiates the mind.  A mind this worldly enjoys the education of passage.

To become short is also a travesty not yet enjoyed in the larger scheme.  Why couldst a person or persons drive toward the shortcut?  Is there a desire for less drama in their story?  My saga does not will to be that unenlightened.  I yearn for knowledge and experience at a rate rarely fully sufficed.  Traipsing through the years on a long road, dense with experience serves the mind better.

The short road misses the scene, bypasses the interesting, and blands your travels.  If its short, chances are you will only short circuit your experience.  The length and breadth needn’t be abridged.  This is not a quick course to fill a term in which Coles Notes will suffice.   I want the Tome.  Fill it and exude the experience.

Make it a solo coffee, Cynthia.

Mark Hull Du Calumet, First of the coterie of York, Son of Don, Scion of Karl in the House of Pfunkstadt, Connubial of Suzanne, Yeoman to the Hun of Honda, Prevailing in the Seat of Hespeler, Having been again to Australia, and now Grandad's Land, and for some, from The Dark Side. Not am Main nor ab der Elba, but down the Donau, and with Turkish Chai. #garagelurker2019, also A.C., Cee Minus.

1000 Days

The first millennium A.C..  As we enter the second, what knowledge have we gleaned from the experiment we are all in?  I don’t mean, conspiracy, or hearsay, or junk science, or fake news.  Real knowledge that we can all agree on.

Man is pliable only for a certain length of time.  Changes can occur from our stasis, but only within a limited expectation.  Man wants and yearns for the equilibrium of moderate change at the pace not noticed.  Rapid or immediate change causes trauma and pushback.  For example, years ago electronic money transfers were only acceptable with full documentation and back up resources and proof.  Now a tap is fine for pretty much every purchase.  We accepted lockdowns for a while, now, the mere mention ire’s most.

Buzz phrases and touchpoints can set off a storm of displeasure.  A mere mention of masking or vaccinations will now make people steam at the ears. Two years ago, we masked up and lined up for vaccinations by the millions.  Now mere mention of these will paint you to one side or another of a debate and you lose, friends, family, and some a job.

Elected officials can now defer to “experts” without losing the faithful.  Forever after, when confronted with an emergency, our elected official will no longer have to make tough decisions, they simply find some random proficient of expertise and state, “they are following the best practices as defined by this expert”.  Bollox to them, I elected THEM to make decisions not some nobody from nowhere.

We have also learned, the longer a crisis endures, then the more, the and the more extreme wackos will come out of the woodwork.  They have and will continue to.  As I was a research assistant, (with a credit for same), we wrote a book on argumentation.  Super Rule # 1: Never argue with a fanatic.   How do people not know this some 40 years after we wrote that book.

1000 days and 1000 nights, make mine as strong as it gets. Pour over for sure.  Thanks Margery.

Mark Hull Du Calumet, First of the coterie of York, Son of Don, Scion of Karl in the House of Pfunkstadt, Connubial of Suzanne, Yeoman to the Hun of Honda, Prevailing in the Seat of Hespeler, Having been again to Australia, and now Grandad's Land, and for some, from The Dark Side. Not am Main nor ab der Elba, but down the Donau, and with Turkish Chai. #garagelurker2019, also A.C., Cee Minus.

New Beginnings Have New Challenges

Once something is defined as “new”, the mind wanders and wonders.  Look at New Coke.  Nope.  News is new, but the legs have fallen off in recent times.  A new coat makes you feel good without reproach.  A new day brings opportunities.  New shoes a different kind of strut.  New Year’s is celebratory for other reasons.  A new job brings challenges and trepidation. 

The face you bring to the game sets the stage for success.  Inquiring, questioning, affirming, and appreciation, are the mettle that raises you to the challenge.  How you are perceived will become part of your pedigree.  That is the value you bring and develop.  The road forward is built on your strengths and understanding.

Being at peace within yourself gives rise to a confidence and poise allowing your mind to absorb new ideas and processes, as well as enabling you to understand without prejudice.  While experience is what you lean on, knowledge and its development will make you grow.  A short tree can become tall in a forest well fertilized and tended.  Reaching higher for more nutrient.  Homo Sapien’s food for development comes from information.

The day you stop learning is the day you stop growing.  Learn always, grow often.  Proffer you knowledge when asked.  Opine when asked.  The two are different but both respected.  Questions are in fact requests for growth.  The answers can either be inert or rich with fodder.  Discerning the difference must be calculated.

Be you, but be with them.  We are on this planetary orb to exchange information, grow information, and understand information.  We have the largest brain by weight of any organism.  It has developed this way because we have developed this way.  You mind is a sponge-like tool to which we owe our existence.  Like a sponge, things move in and out, get morphed and expanded.  Use it to its utmost.

By design you are distinct from every other in the world.  Twins too are each slightly different.  Clones too would be different as well.  To walk in someone else’s shoes is an aphorism and not reality.  I am different, you are different, we are different.  Revel in bot the similarities and differences.

Do everything you do, best.

Steam those grounds Gertrude, Strong is what I need today.

Mark Hull Du Calumet, First of the coterie of York, Son of Don, Scion of Karl in the House of Pfunkstadt, Connubial of Suzanne, Yeoman to the Hun of Honda, Prevailing in the Seat of Hespeler, Having been again to Australia, and now Grandad's Land, and for some, from The Dark Side. Not am Main nor ab der Elba, but down the Donau, and with Turkish Chai. #garagelurker2019, also A.C., Cee Minus.

Art for Our Sake, Goodness Sakes!

The Art is not the reason, the art is the subject, not the object.  There is no reason in Art.  The eye, ear, or touch, takes it in and the subject is processed by the mind.  Rarely do two minds process in the same way.  It is a pleasure when the minds meet in the process.  I smile each time.

Some art becomes obvious and immediate, and some needs to gestate in the mind.  The mind’s eye must make dendritic connections before full appreciation can be achieved.  Time can make the eye and brain wander, paths and courses less travelled by.  Take the fork and knife your way through a piece, if you cut a similar swath as another, again smiles all around.

To watch the process can also be enjoyable.  To see the effluvium entering the eye and the corners of the lips twisting in question.  The apparent engulfing of visual stimuli forcing its way into the brain through ocular receptors and the resulting widening of the look.  Interpretation manipulated by one’s history and growth.  A smile arises as appreciation grows.

To see the detail and the big picture, in context and with understanding of the artist.  To parse the paint and/or medium with the thought that there was intent.  Fulfilling the mind’s need for input while straining the range of understanding.  This exercise feeds your thoughts and nourishes the cognizance of the world as it is.  A smile reflects both appreciation and pleasure.

As patron to doner, as plaster moves through clay to oil, the where and the what become less important.  The message received through perception, different for each body, is that which has the import to move.  True sight, tactile reception, and aural connectivity draws the interest clearer and with insight.  Whence the body reacts with a smile, appreciation has been reached.

I smiled and saw smiles a lot then.

Smash me with a splash of sugar in my Joe today, Sally.

Mark Hull Du Calumet, First of the coterie of York, Son of Don, Scion of Karl in the House of Pfunkstadt, Connubial of Suzanne, Yeoman to the Hun of Honda, Prevailing in the Seat of Hespeler, Having been again to Australia, and now Grandad's Land, and for some, from The Dark Side. Not am Main nor ab der Elba, but down the Donau, and with Turkish Chai. #garagelurker2019, also A.C., Cee Minus.

This is a Very Famous Blog about Darmstadt

So out and about in the environs of some of my ancestors and still currently the home of some of my kin, we were given a private tour of the town.  To start, lets introduce my Very Famous tour guide AB.  For all intents and purposes, a fully fledged local.

Knowledge of AB bas been gleaned both from the book and experience.  A proper blend of interpreting both is how you should receive information from your Very Famous guide. We did.  As we strolled the inner sanctums of Darmstadt, each turn revealed another gem in the city of industry, science and technology. 

Bohrium (1981), meitnerium (1982), hassium (1984), darmstadtium (1994), roentgenium (1994), and copernicium (1996) were discovered in this Very Famous city. The existence of the following elements was also confirmed at GSI Centre for Heavy Ion Research: nihonium (2012), flerovium (2009), moscovium (2012), livermorium (2010), and tennessine (2012).  As familiar as the average person could be with those elements, I might have just dropped a name or two off the top of my head and hit my big toe.

Even the Very Famous Frankenstein Castle resides in Darmstadt.  The namesake of that Very Famous Horror story.  But above that spectacle, is the Very Famous Mathildenhohe, or the Wedding Tower, also commonly referred to as the Five Finger Tower.  If seen, this becomes self-explanatory.  Many Very Famous Russian and Art Nouveau construction and design examples are found in the inside of the city reachable on a brief walking tour.  Jugendstil as it is known in Germany, relates to many still standing and gorgeous buildings in and around the central areas of town.

Many of the Very Famous parks and squares in Darmstadt are adorned with statues and monuments of the founders and original land lords of the region.  A column 33 meters tall holds a statue of the Very Famous Ludwig I, the first Grand Duke of Hesse the region in which Darmstadt resides.

The largest employer in Darmstadt is the Very Famous Merck the pharmaceutical company.  Many locals use the extensive and intricate tram/streetcar system for travel inner city and trains to nearly everywhere in Europe.  The Very Famous European Space Operations Center and the EUMETSAT, The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, both call Darmstadt home.  Additionally, there are several electronics research centers in the area.

Hence the statement that the Very Famous Darmstadt can definitely be a destination.  Regardless of the fact I have relatives in residence in Darstadt, and the nearby Pfunkstadt, (my mother’s birthplace), has more of my family in residence.

Mark Hull Du Calumet, First of the coterie of York, Son of Don, Scion of Karl in the House of Pfunkstadt, Connubial of Suzanne, Yeoman to the Hun of Honda, Prevailing in the Seat of Hespeler, Having been again to Australia, and now Grandad's Land, and for some, from The Dark Side. Not am Main nor ab der Elba, but down the Donau, and with Turkish Chai. #garagelurker2019, also A.C., Cee Minus.

Dungarees Diligently Distinguish the Desired

Revisiting is not the norm, however repetition can both be comical and a reminder.  All blues are not the same, some are light, some are dark and some make you cry.  Thought is the origin, not the result.

From whence cometh the cotton habiliments?  Leg worn and knee scuffed, true or actuated dyes worn thin through ardour.  Truth be known, there is only one true.  The one which fits each time, the one that shapes as known, the one that wears as belief, the one that has proven to be “the” one.

Passing judgement is a tough course.  You have to have the resolve and steadfastness to be believed and followed.  Inner knowledge can be swayed as fashions trend here and there.  Fro and to with the likes of Parisian critics pining to be on the inside.  No, my statements were true before and hold water in the watered-down world of the 24-hour news cycle.

Cycles on and circuitous arguments for others pale by distinction not only because of weak premises, bet because seams, zips and button cannot be closed or clothed.  Clotted cream courses my veins at age and the tried never gets tried by courtesans.  Dissagrweemnets I have staved off with fact and fervour.   Fakes and foibles of others cannot budge my belief.  Cogito ergo sum.

Let the Levis rest Lannah, I need a dark espresso today.

Mark Hull Du Calumet, First of the coterie of York, Son of Don, Scion of Karl in the House of Pfunkstadt, Connubial of Suzanne, Yeoman to the Hun of Honda, Prevailing in the Seat of Hespeler, Having been again to Australia, and now Grandad's Land, and for some, from The Dark Side. Not am Main nor ab der Elba, but down the Donau, and with Turkish Chai. #garagelurker2019, also A.C., Cee Minus.

Friendship not Fiends Foster Fellowship

Minds do not make a person: its how that is used that does.  Malevolence does not make a leader: benevolence will.  Warmheartedness breeds friends: willfulness will shun them away. 

To chat, as a verb describes a pass time I enjoy.  Seeing the understanding in the other's eyes and motions only makes me want to delve further in the mind of my interlocutor.  How does it work, parse, and understand? From where does that idea germinate?  Sounding ideas off a sponge requires patience and the will for things to grow.  The cognitive process is circuitous.  The loops and zags, popping through the dendrites of one’s grey mater is game of patience.

To enjoy that process you must pause and stimulate.  Pause with inputs and triggers, stimulate with verse and vocabulary.  Dissonance will only arise as blocks and barricades to the process are spat forth.  Ingest all that exudes and you will to be showered with more.  Ideas and concepts discussed and hashed out resolving the issues of the day.

Issues do not arise betwixt and between to build walls, but arise to meld and morph minds mixing in the miasma.  The joy, (pull up the song Joy by Carlos Santana at this point and listen while you read) is in the change and not the stasis. Equipoise has never gleaned newness, or originality.  The world must proceed through the universe as we must.  Whence thou could resist the evolution of mankind?  Or not.

To evolute, or to hold in stasis, you have no option.  Trundle on in the world, unfortunately or with promise.  Pressing needs oft determine your path, its best to have options.  Options discussed are the fun of the journey.  It is in your cognition of those that make for joy.

Jump it up a notch Julia, make it an Americano.

Mark Hull Du Calumet, First of the coterie of York, Son of Don, Scion of Karl in the House of Pfunkstadt, Connubial of Suzanne, Yeoman to the Hun of Honda, Prevailing in the Seat of Hespeler, Having been again to Australia, and now Grandad's Land, and for some, from The Dark Side. Not am Main nor ab der Elba, but down the Donau, and with Turkish Chai. #garagelurker2019, also A.C., Cee Minus.

With 2 Cats in the Yard, and a Friend

“Life used to be so hard, now everything is easy ‘cause of you.”  Well, “cats” can be just people, and a friend can be a cat.  When Mr. goes stalking, we all look up and attend.  Attendance is not mandatory, obligatory, nor ambulatory.

I ride, some ride in cages.  I cage too but not if the temp is conducive to the ride.  Whilst the heat of summer is not upon us as of yet, I await those days for comfort and the ride.  The bitumen reflects the heat upward washing the view and raising the corn.  Those days of abandon have not met me yet.  There will be more and there won’t be less.

Pandering to the populous is never on my cognitive awareness chart.  I strum a different kind of instrument.  The instrument of justice does not touch me.  But decking can be a relaxing and enjoyable experience with two cats.  Chatter that does not matter waddling it way through topic and tropic.

Those times are the filler in the pillow of life.  Nothing hard and discomforting, no dispute, no discrimination.  Those troubled topics tenor the times with terse remakes best left for the solitude of singularity.  Jabs and jests of jocularity are just what the proffers of betterment have prescribed.  Under orders of course, but not a loop.

Distractions and attractions and actions mused and discussed.  Not subject or Mr. too small or too sly.  Mystery abounds outside.  Inside, just the house. Outside, the rest of the world.  Inquisitiveness and breath waft through the winds of chatter.  The milky miasma of mornings alerted by aromas of Java and the sounds of the city.

Slip in smooth Sonya, no splash.

Mark Hull Du Calumet, First of the coterie of York, Son of Don, Scion of Karl in the House of Pfunkstadt, Connubial of Suzanne, Yeoman to the Hun of Honda, Prevailing in the Seat of Hespeler, Having been again to Australia, and now Grandad's Land, and for some, from The Dark Side. Not am Main nor ab der Elba, but down the Donau, and with Turkish Chai. #garagelurker2019, also A.C., Cee Minus.

Voice Your Vote and Vanquish the Villains

Duty and obligation are oft used interchangeably: they are not always so.  Duty, derives it existence from the requirement or owing of something. Obligation, has a moral root from the belief that you must perform something.

You as a member of a democratic society, have an obligation to go to polls and place your ex on a spot and vote.  Your have no duty to do so.  You do not owe me or any other person you action to make your make on the ballot.  Your moral requirement is derived from your acceptance by residing where you do.  A representative democracy places a moral obligation on you to state who will be the person to represent you.

You cannot simply say, “I don’t care who gets in, they are all the same.”.  by accepting to live here, you are obliged to do the smallest part of your obligation and pass your say on to a representative.  Society does not operate by rules or laws, it operates because we all agree there is a moral obligation to act in certain ways.

Now you may say my guy I voted for was not elected.  That may be true, but you completed your moral obligation to voice your opinion and toss your hat the way of the person of your choice.  That is all that is required.  The elected are then entrusted with your morality through them.  You are now absolved of responsibility until the term of office is complete.

You owe no body anything that you should vote.  When this occurs, it is called patronage.  Somebody paid you for your vote.  In a representative democracy, it is known as corruption.   While this does happen more often that one might think, it is not the reason to vote or a good reason to vote.  Corruption is unavoidable with the human spirit.  Freedom of thought is inviolable.

These times occur at various terms and opportunities as we all live and age.  When you are able, morally you must. 

Foam it on the top Fabriana, make your mark.

Mark Hull Du Calumet, First of the coterie of York, Son of Don, Scion of Karl in the House of Pfunkstadt, Connubial of Suzanne, Yeoman to the Hun of Honda, Prevailing in the Seat of Hespeler, Having been again to Australia, and now Grandad's Land, and for some, from The Dark Side. Not am Main nor ab der Elba, but down the Donau, and with Turkish Chai. #garagelurker2019, also A.C., Cee Minus.