Happy New Year. Welcome to the Roaring 20s

Otherwise known as DEFAULT MODE on this particular program.  Expect highs and lows and more of the same with some startling surprises.
It would not surprise me if we are still putting air in our tires for another hundred years, like the saps we are.   In the meantime, our phone will become our doctor, we will do our own surgeries at Auto Zone, We can teleport to Alpha Centauri  and live and die in a mirror world on the internet.   But flying cars is crazy talk.
Right. 
Happy New Year

My superpower

I am the abstract entity of the spelling error that is phonetically correct.
I will tell you the profound to enlighten you, but be shrugged off due to an e where an I should be.  You will understand the communication and disregard it as foolspeake.

Not everyone can, or should, fly.

Merry Christmas.

Sub-Bla

Trying harder than most to find a voice and medium that mandates an individual observers interpretation with minimal creator manipulation.
A subversive bland, if you will.  Some may see it as unfinished,  I would say unpolished. 

Check back often

Story of an imaginary Hapless Gent.  I identify as a fictional character


I dont want to die
In Salem Missouri
No offense intended
 I said offensively
It just doesn't seem
Like the place to
Go back
 to Finish a story

I dont want to live
In Salina Kansas
But it follows me
Everywhere I go
It gets on you
no soap
 can wash it off
Everybody knows me
Exactly as I was
Not as I am
Or will be

So I exist
Somewhere in between
Happiness is a myth not meant to be
Part of me survives , they said
As I witness
The Poet
Kill The Bowler dead

Its supposed to be

Type it up.
Very little edit.
Post it.

Post Title

Woke up at 5 for work.
 Still sitting on a chair in front of a fan.
Felt drunk when I woke up
I wasnt.
It was so quiet, and so loud
The sound of my own blood pressure
In my ears
Took my bp meds
I hate those
This tweet is sooo Facebook

Very Tricky Dreams

I felt my jaw and lips becoming numb. I told them to tell my wife and kids I love them...but nothing came out but air and quiet, jumbled sounds, as the sharp pain in my back increased. 

I tried to say goodbye, but there was nothing as the numbness became all encompassing.

I woke up in my desk chair with what I hope to be ribs out of place.

Sleep paralysis is real. I've died a thousand deaths, but at least it wasn't eating me this time.

Heck of a morning nap. No indication I was asleep at all.

Human Interaction

Had a day of human interaction.  Grandsons Birthday party and traveled to another grandsons bowling tournament.  Ended with my usual awkward conversations with me coming at the subject matter from unusual viewpoints.

Sorry, world. My whole way of seeing is from left field.  It seems to be getting worse as I age.  I had some better years, for awhile.

All I can do is keep at it and hope I don't upset too many people when I had good intentions.

Cognitive Bias

I had to quit Facebook when I realized that the mere fact that my use of the term "Dunning-Kruger effect" is also an example of it.

Mandela

If by chance, a business named Frankenstines moved locations after years in business,  and a guy named Burkenbine put a hot dog stand in their old building,  and the motto was WE'VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE, would that explain the Mandela effect ?

Rule #1

My whole life I have questioned the notion of a creative writing course.   Why would creative, need instruction ? 

The Immaterial.

Seemingly tedious to some

I slowly craft another brick

for the castle walls

in my minds eye

It costs nothing worth losing

to build with nothing

yet this property appreciates

as a river of consumption runs dry

My brain on coffee

I watched an event giving an update on A.I. , and it was giving samples of how careful you have to be when you create its instructions. It was one of those talks where they try to demonstrate that there is nothing to worry about, it only does what we tell it to, and look at how stupid this thing is. It is only as smart as the programmer.

All I could think was- what if the A.I is so far ahead of you, you just don't get it ? I am familiar with this dynamic. People think I am stupid all the time.

What if the A.I. is just fucking with you?

Sorry.

I just had my first cup of coffee in a long, long time.

Notes

C Cooler bag. Ice. bbq pork rhines. Juice. Stool softener. Low sodium soy sauce. Ants let us live because they hope we don't kill everything before we get smart enough to be beneficial to the world. Cheese. PIck up grandkids. Sell bowling balls. So much nonsense I've noticed subtleties between absurdity and the truth. Drier cord and vent. A Ballad of the driver who safely drives for himself and others. Drier sheets.

It's the little things

I know my computer screen is filthy, but I consider it a life enhancement. I just read a twitter grammar nazi post that spelled realized as tealized. I had to scroll to see that it was a large dust speck on top of the R.   Just the brief moment of thinking one of these people had an error make it past their inner editor had me giddy.
I laughed as I deleted my response.

I like the feeling of uncertainty and am looking forward to the next mystery

Project looking glass in the internet rumor mill

If Project Looking Glass is real, then I am even more upset about lives depending on properly inflated rubber tires.

Be safe out there

Pontificating

Woke up from a bad dream. I was tossing and turning and wrapped up in the sheets. Weird.  The dream was about making the route for some work orders.

When Satan makes his pitch and you see through it, he smiles and moves on to another.  There's no anger at someone who saw through the bullshit. You cant stop a force of nature from doing its thing. There is a class to the demeanor.  When lesser beings attempt to manipulate,  they may not show you that same grace.

As a society, we are lab rats. Somewhere in the hierarchical machine, true genius moves all the everythings. Shaping, prodding and manipulating by any means necessary to get a desired result. Economics, psychology, marketing are all studies of how to make us move the machine.  Government prefers to be thought of as stupid.

People have always been asking me if I am mad or upset.   

They always ask on the 6th day.
I have 5 grey T-shirts.

A reading of some of the newer blog posts

  Marks Soundcloud Link


  Soundcloud Reading

Keep the peace

"God is as much in my life as in yours" says the polite atheist to the devout family member.

Peace.

Jive Walken

For years I've been working on my Christopher Walken impression. I'm sure this is of no surprise to anyone. I call it Jive Walken. 1, because it's bad, and 2. Because I imagine him doing his take on BEEGEE tunes.

Post

So....one day I asked the boss
Can I have some time off
to work on this project
and the boss asked
how much time do you need?

& I thought about it
and said
"All of it."

"All of it?"

"Yeah. All of it. "

The boss says "Nobody ever asked for that, specifically."

Can you fill in, on a Tuesday, here and there? mumbled the boss with no quotation marks...

No.   

OK.
Good luck. Must be a helluva project. 


It's the only one I will ever have. 

trials and tribulations

I lost some feeling in my right hand about 4 months ago. So here I am, spinning toilet paper for an hour because I can't find that seam, all because the toilet paper is on the wrong side.

It was bad enough when my son had to open my straw for a smoothie the other day.

It takes all kinds

It takes all kinds.

to have real meaning
It takes all kinds, is more than just an old proverb.
It takes short, to define tall. It takes taller to re-define.
It takes confidence, to fail again. This is how we learn.
It takes bad things to know what good even is, doesn't it?
It takes knowledge of good and bad, to make a shade of grey.
It takes all kinds, to inspire innovation.
It takes all kinds to find average
it takes all kinds to know we are all exceptional
It takes all kinds, to recognize, to educate
it takes personal tragedy , to recognize the beauty in a flaw
it takes all kinds to create character
it takes all kinds to mold a person , and it takes all kinds to strengthen a person
enough to break that mold
It takes love, hate, time,
 accidents, experience,
life and death, knowledge and a lack of it
good, bad and
more and less
fame, famine, prosperity, loss
my point of view, your point of view
freedom and oppression
to foster imagination
to see beyond
It takes all kinds to see that perfection is not defined
that there is more to see beyond sight
Good day, good night

a different way to look at it

I now sleep on a low to the ground air bed. Big difference in outlook, when you have to climb into the day as opposed to falling in to it. 

? Things aren't

life goes on, they say

I guess it depends on what you think living is

As per the usual

Reality is ferocious when provoked

It is the end of the best relationship I have ever had.

Somewhat less than happy....

Notes

Note to self: Notes are for someone else

Refrigerator Doors

One day, my pictures will be on refrigerator doors around the world.

Each time the magnet clinks and my place is solidified , I get that weird energy strike like The Highlander.

There can be only one

Shadowbanned

ProfitableNarcissist

@burkenbine_mark

·

1m

My new autobiography title Shadowbanned Since Birth: Forced to be like everybody else. Ewww
Replacing the old title of
The Life & Times of Mark Burkenbine: My ass is feeling squishy, I hope my hemorrhoid didn't burst

My project

For years.  This has been going on for years. Others complained but I was doing something about it, I said. It takes great sacrifices to accomplish great things, I said. But the same noise continues despite my teachings. I must be doing it wrong. 
Crickets. Can they not learn a new song?

A Gallery of Sorts by Mark Burkenbine

If Only...

If only I could monetize what it is that I do.   What is this thing that I do?  

I have been told I could do something that MADE MONEY and I answered "Could I ?" I am 51 years old and gravitate towards odd things that mostly pay awful or not at all. 

Perhaps I could get a good color all-in-one printer and make my own greeting cards or something....sell them door to door....and amass enough wealth to build my own version of a bowling alley, from scratch.  I promise, my version would not look like the others. 

Losing Battle

Kinda freaked out. Just read that my, as yet unborn, 5th chin is destined to rule the universe. #LovecraftianMythos #OnePackageOfOreosAway

How May I Help You ?

Every time I drive away , new version......

     Drama.  As the bowling ball turns

For the full experience....

Apparently, you now have to manually start the wikplayer in the top  left corner of your computer screen.

The Path/ Land of Coffee

News In General

Forecast for the next 6 to 12 years will see Historical Hundred Year floods of weaponized absurdity. Unfortunately, there will be no consensus of what was absurd, insuring new toxic standards for the future.

No Defense

I used to think the realm of absurdity was a beautiful thing, but now I see it weaponized to distract and confuse and injure the psyche of the masses.   As the attack intensifies, we all shall lose the tools to fight it.   We all will be victims of the same thing.  Absurdity. 

questions

questions.....

Why go to space when we don't know ( or the government isn't sharing with us) information about our own planet? We have only explored 5% of the ocean, and there is probably another even larger ocean underneath our shell. Our maps misrepresent the size of Africa, Antarctica and who knows what else....and for Pete's sake, we, as humans, can only see .0035 of the light spectrum. What is here, or out there, that we cannot even see, but can see us ?

Again...why are we still putting air in rubber tires but we can clone things,3D print, store information in DNA, and have phones that can do anything a doctor can, and launch things into space?

I would source all this info, but the truth is, nothing has any credibility anymore.

And BOWLING. What the heck is up with that?

Mark Burkenbine

Of Differing Opinion...

Of differing opinion...
You will never have an argument with someone you respect.
I have never had a conversation with someone who does not respect me.
Leaders --make their decisions and proceed forward with the plan
regardless of the chatter below them, and regardless of the consequences that are already accepted.

Rabbit hole

A friend told me he would like to pick my brain. I asked if he was sure about that. I said a few people have gotten into my head, but they come back different.
It's kind of like Pet Sematary

Vacation

One of these days when I retire from looking for a way to never do something I'd want to retire from, I'm going to travel the U.S. by region. Maybe bring the grand kids.  We will travel to Walmarts/Targets or fast food restaurants , and get some chairs and wait next to the return or checkout line. Just patiently waiting for that magic moment.  A disgruntled customer losing their shit. Maybe a bullshit return story. Maybe see how customer service operates in other areas, after being spoiled by the Midwest my whole life.
Human behavior is fascinating. (Not to be confused with picking on how someone looks or dresses...I'm just looking for those beautiful situations of communication breakdown and Ill timed bad manners.  As for the grandkids vacations, they have been to Vegas and the Grand Canyon. It's time to step up the experience  )

Working Title

I Schadenfreude myself.  


-Mark Burkenbine

Know your place

Currently looking over my health, job skills and future and with a gleam in my eye I can proudly say I'm going to be a great canned meat. A surprisingly tasty (dare i say ,Zesty) off label on the bottom row of some chain grocery store you've never heard of- not one of those ritzy places that charge a quarter for the cart.
Mark Burkenbine 2019

Memeless

It takes a special kind of commitment to be this decidedly undisciplined, and I am going to have to step it up to get to where I am going. That is an untruth. EVERYONE gets to where they are going.

Mark Burkenbine 2019 memeless

Contains Live Active Cultures (CLAC)

Piece of mind

I want to build on this piece of ground I found that lies somewhere between the profound and the profane


Mark Burkenbine 2019

Being Herd

Shhh Be very, very quiet in here and remember--- Pushing the ENTER key is the loudest noise you can possibly make.

signature line

I'm trying to do for Social Media what Tom Waits did for Optometry and Lawn Mowers.

After years of ball busting toil , I think I have succeeded. It is going to be a good 2019 after all.

--brought to you memeless by Mark Burkenbine.

Captains Log January 1, 2019.

Since taking probiotics, the bathroom has become a sensory deprivation chamber where I have become a disciple of the teachings of late, great G.I. Gurdjieff.

Any bathroom will do. Could be your bathroom, could be my bathroom.

I don't know.