Marcus Aurelius (meditations)

Marcus Aurelius (meditations)

  1. “The lover of glory conceives his own good to consist in another’s action, the lover of pleasure in his own feelings, but the possessor of understanding in his own actions.”

Ἔξεστι περὶ τούτου μηδὲν ὑπολαμβάνειν καὶ μὴ ὀχλεῖσθαι τῇ ψυχῇ: αὐτὰ γὰρ τὰ πράγματα οὐκ ἔχει φύσιν ποιητικὴν τῶν ἡμετέρων κρίσεων.”

Book VI

  1. “Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do.
    Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you.
    Sanity means tying it to your own actions.”
Book 6.51

Marcus Aurelius (meditations)

Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius


A free copy of Marcus Aurelius Meditationsis available here.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

One of the great, if undersold, American novels. A classic in its own right. One of a handful of novels I will reread from time to time. It’s been, maybe, a few years, more than 7, since I last ripped through it.

As one of the first “journalists” to recognize the presidential perfidy, with the first televised war on going, just makes the revelations, observations, and conceits throughout the novel that much more important.

“But what was the story? Nobody had bothered to say. So we would have to drum it up on our own. Free Enterprise. The American Dream. Horatio Alger gone mad on drugs in Las Vegas. Do it now: pure Gonzo journalism.” Page 23.

Just one of the passages, and at any given moment, rereading the text, I wonder. It is a savage journey into the heart of the American Dream, and dated, yet oddly prescient and timeless.

“For a loser, Vegas is the meanest town on earth.” Page 46.

Still is, if memory serves, still is.

“So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.” Page 67.

(Quoted again, the point where the wave crested.)

The quote, halfway through? Marks the point, historical, allegorical, or even just literary.

There is a Las Vegas I remember. First, as a roadie, literally, just an overnight at the edge of town, long enough to do a few loads of laundry and loose 50 cents in a slot machine. Then I wasn’t back for nearly a decade, and that was a fateful experience.

Slots had quarters. I wore a familiar uniform of a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, walked all over the new strip, and I won, if not huge, at least a decent chunk of change. Paid my rent off a slot machine win. My shorts almost wouldn’t stay up as I had yet to figure out the quarters buckets, and I was stuffing hundreds of dollars of quarters in my pockets.

Amusing, rookie memory. But it’s not the Vegas in Fear and Loathing, although certainly that is a precursor and the lawlessness was every bit as present. The sense of the American Dream being available at the whims of the fates, or furies.

The style of the story is razor-sharp, quick-witted, and breathless pacing. That’s what’s important, not just content but incredibly quick pacing. I want to write like that.

For me, it’s a novel that holds up under the scrutiny of repeated exposure.

Oddly enough, there was an echo from the end of Counterfeit that sent me scurrying back into Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas


Buck Moon

Buck Moon

Dromio of Ephesus:

“It would make a man mad as a buck to be so bought and sold.”

Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors (III.i.73)

July 13, 1313 CDT:
Sun in Cancer, Moon in Capricorn.

Buck Moon Buck Moon

#shakespeare

July 12 Austin’s Own Nature’s Treasures

July 12 Austin’s Own Nature’s Treasures

Natures’s Treasures

4103 N. Interstate 35
Austin, TX 78722
Phone: 512.472.5015

11AM – 5PM, appointments encouraged. E-mail.
Tuesday at Nature’s Treasures.

It’s really him,” at the rock shop in Austin.

July 12 Austin’s Own Nature’s Treasures

Tuesday in Austin at Nature’s Treasures

Use the code, “sparkle faerie” at the check out — for applicable discounts.

Buck Moon

Price Selection Won’t Be Beat!

Vincit Qui Primum Gerit

“First to arrive gets the best deal.” (Source.)

astrofish.net/travel

TMTthumb.jpg

Cash is king.

#Austin

Austin Images

Austin Images

A couple of Austin images, from decades passed.

Sandy’s and Jo’s Coffee.

Street cred.

From the old trailer park, along the shores of Town Lake.

Today NT

July 10 Sunday in San Antonio (Live Oak)

Guiding Light Healing Arts
Hilton Garden Inn
8101 Pat Booker Road
Live Oak, TX
11:00 AM – 5:00 PM

July 10 Sunday in San Antonio (Live Oak)

Today in San Antonio — by the forum — with some answers to questions….

Sunday! In San Antonio!

astrofish.net/travel for details

Sunday by the Forum in San Antonio

July 10 Sunday in San Antonio (Live Oak)

Keep Calm and See Kramer

Curious as to the astrological details?

There are two sources of data, seeing me in San Antonio this Sunday — or the weekly horoscopes.

Sunday in San Antonio (Live Oak)

It’s really him.”

Crab Cards

San Pedro Creek

  • Digital Version here.

astrofish.net/travel

Vincit Qui Primum Gerit

“First to arrive gets the best deal.”

Weekly Notify Email

Preston & Child

Preston & Child

Previously, Diablo Mesa.

“In the midst of digging, sometimes she got so focused on a square meter of dirt that she would start losing the overall story that the site was trying to tell her.” Page 155.

All about the thrill of an archeology dig. With murder and mayhem carefully folded in. A ghost story? Occam’s Razor?

Little bonus? Jornada del Muertos, strictly sidebar item, mentioned early in the novel.

“When the FBI arrived, it was like getting the flu: nothing you could do about it but wait for the headache, fever, and diarrhea to go away.” Page 15.

Gripping.

Murder and mayhem in New York. Very posh.