Category Tail Feathers

Bits and bytes of randomness found along the flyways of cyberdom

A Lesson in “HEART”

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

A lesson in “heart” is my little 10 year old daughter, Sarah, who was born with a muscle missing in her foot, and wears a brace all the time. She came home one beautiful spring day and told me she had competed in “field day”–that’s where they have lots of races and other competitive events.

Because of her leg support, my mind raced as I tried to think of encouragement for my Sarah, things I could say to her about not letting this get her down, but before I could get a word out, she said, “Daddy, I won two of the races!”

I couldn’t believe it! And then Sarah said, “I had an advantage.” Ah, I knew it, I thought she must have been given a head start….some special privilege due to wearing a brace.

Sarah said, “But Daddy, I didn’t get a head start; my advantage was that I had to work harder than the others!”

– Source Unknown

No One Wonders

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Ink and Quill … if a dead man is raised to life, all men spring up in astonishment. Yet every day one that had no being is born, and no man wonders, though it is plain to all, without doubt, that it is a greater thing for that to be created which was without being than for that which had being to be restored. Because the dry rod of Aaron budded, all men were in astonishment; every day a tree is produced from the dry earth, … and no man wonders …Five thousand men were filled with five loaves; … every day the grains of seed that are sown are multiplied in a fullness of ears, and no man wonders. All … wondered to see water once turned into wine. Every day the earth’s moisture, being drawn into the root of the vine, is turned by the grape into wine, and no man wonders. Full of wonder then are all the things which men never think to wonder at, because … they are by habit become dull to the consideration of them.

–Gregory the Great, (540-604) Pope of the Roman Catholic Church 590-604
General Environmental Quotations

Are Brick and Mortar Record Stores the Next Dinosaur to become extinct?

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The Great Tower Falls – Does the demise of Tower Records signal the end of the Record Store as we know it!?


We’ve seen vinyl turn to tape. Tape turn to CD. Is it now the time for CD’s to turn to Mp3’s? Is this good bye to tangible media, cover art, lining inserts, and “thank you’s” from the band? Will music become what the ATM card is to the paper dollar? We know it’s there, but we can’t SEE it? My gut feeling says it’s bound to happen in our lifetime and that kids of today and tomorrow are going to miss out on the great music experience known as the trip to the record store only to be replaced by “Come over to my house and you can pillage my mp3 collection”.

Overpriced music and videos have led to the rapid expansion of the alternative music marketplace. Being able to pick, choose and buy the music and videos we really like has opened up the download file swapping phenom we know as electronic media. Being able to get instant delivery of the product via download has enabled the music industry to market their products directly to the consumer, if of course they choose to go that route. I feel that the overly strict copyright laws imposed on the consuming public has led, in my opinion, to the rise of this media buying rebellion. This current generation has grown tired of being forced to buy mediocre music on cds in order to get the one or two good songs they really want. Not since the disappearance of the vinyl 45 single has the public been offered the ability to purchase that latest hit by XYZ band in a convenient consumer friendly format. Gone are the days of production company CD’s whose demise is long overdue. Let ’em R.I.P.

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

Wasp

“To carry a grudge is like being stung to death by one bee.”

— William H. Walton

The Cold Within

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404488~Snow-Covered-Log-Cabin-in-Woods-PostersSix humans trapped by happenstance,
In black and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood,
Or so the story’s told.

Their dying fire in need of logs,
The first woman held hers back,
For on the faces around the fire,
She noticed one was black.

The next man looking ’cross the way
Saw one not of his church,
And couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes;
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought OldBlackMan
Of the wealth he had in store,
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.

And the last man of this forlorn group.
Did naught, except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave,
Was how he played the game.

The logs held tight in death’s still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without.
They died from the cold within.

James Patrick Kinney

campfire