April 11, 2010
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Personal Update
I see I haven't blogged here in almost a month! Sorry about that.
My birthday was last week - I am now starting my ninth interesting decade. I hope it's not going to be quite as interesting as the last eight (Remember the old Chinese curse).
I remember as a child, going out to watch the Pan Am seaplanes land - and in my early teens watching four torpedoed ships burning off the beach all at once. I remember driving a Red Cross truck through four foot deep water to rescue flooded out hurricane victims.
I remember the poverty and strife of postwar Crete. I remember riding through miles and miles of fire-bombed rubble outside Nagoya. I remember as a 20-year-old sailing away from Korea after the war started. I remember my time later as a light-weapons infantryman. I remember meeting the president and having him tell me to my face that he was trying his damnedest to get us out of Viet Nam (He was lying). I remember the night we were driving through Newark when the rioting and burning started. I remember watching Neil Armstrong live take his first steps on the moon. I remember sitting on a glacier eating a lunch of reindeer stew.
I remember sitting on a beach at Bali - and diving into the water right on top of a sea snake. I remember climbing the pyramid at Boroburdur. I remember riding a hydrofoil to Macao - and also one to Capri.
I remember hearing about my students - killed in Viet Nam. I remember my wife in intensive care (for four days - hospital for another two weeks) with a head injury causing permanent brain damage (loss of balance )
I remember watching the otters on our lake beach and hearing the loons every night.
I remember my first computer - a mighty Apple II with 48K memory - it coast more than my present MacBook Pro 17.
Comments (5)
quite a memory.
Dear Dick,
I'll comment here even though you have a later entry. I'll attempt to comment on each in one comment. First of all, happy belated birthday. I certainly hope I'm as cognizant as you are when I hit 90. I don't know you in "real life" but your online conversations and observations are always spot on and immensely interesting to read.
Which President? Johnson. He only listened to McNamara, who admitted his policies of troop buildups were wrong later in his life. Johnson was a great President (he passed both Medicare and the Civil Rights bill while in office, if memory serves) but was a domestic President stuck with what was essentially Kennedy's war!
I wonder if the glacier you sat on is still there?
I waited till 1997 to get my first computer, then promptly bought four more in the ensuing years, every couple of years or so, until I got my present one in 2006, and I still have it.
I have blogged about the atmosphere of hatred and meanness before. It's the blogosphere's replacement as "journalism" for a lot of people, which seems to have fashioned most into people who "shoot from the mouth without thinking about the consequences". Sad fact of life. There are a few great thinkers and commentators who aren't foul mouthed opinionists and/or pathetic pundits in the media, but one needs to look hard to find them. People tend to agree too quickly with someone to whom they listen or follow, without delving too deeply into the other side of the question. I just registered for jury duty for this year. Each time I get called, I usually get on a jury, because I always show myself as pragmatic and sensible, and I think the lawyers for each side see me as a perfect jurist. Truth be told, I like being on a jury. I just hope if I get chosen, and get on a trial, it doesn't last three months like the last one.
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool
@baldmike2004 -
Hey Mike!
Don't me me any older than I am - I just turned eighty - not ninety
The glacier was the Hardanger jokulen - which is, I believe still there
@tychecat - Dick, I'm so sorry. I've never been good at math. Also, I'd like to apologize for not visiting the Socrates Cafe site that often. (I've been really sporadic with my blogging this year.) I hope to change that. I always seem to be commenting while I'm at work, and when commenting on the Cafe, I really want to have my thoughts on the subjects, and not on whether or not one of the bosses is going to "catch" me Xangaing instead of working. (Although I work pretty hard, and should be allowed to do what I want after 22 years at this place, but that's another story.)
I hope to give some time to Xanga this weekend, since I'm making a new video, and perhaps I'll weigh in on some recent Cafe discussions. I visited there yesterday, and I do want to give my opinions about "philosophy in modern society". I might even write a blog entry of my own on the topic and link it in a comment on the Cafe.
Thank you for your dutiful visits to my blog. I always see comments from you, and want you to know I'm very grateful, even though I haven't been a good blogger when it comes to returning comments lately, or participating in the blogrings to which I belong!
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool
I am very late but never the less...Belated happy birthday...May you share your 80 years of wisdom with us all.