Metaphor

Joe? Where are you Joe? Paging Joe The PlumberJoe The Plumber is the perfect poster boy and metaphor for what is wrong with conservatism.I have noticed the ideology tends to be a tad bit self-serving.There is no loyalty among hypocrites.None at all.McCain even had to bus in school kids to get a crowd. What's with that? School kids?And Sarah Palin is already bucking for his job before he even g

Predator Press [LOBO] You know on one hand I want to thank Dr. Tundra for the great title, and on the other I'm furious with him for almost making me look up what "metaphor" means. I shouldn't be too angry. I mean it's not like I actually bothered looking up what “metaphor” means, right? No harm, no foul. Plus, I think I can fake my way through this. Sure maybe I couldn't tell

Cricket, it wouldn’t be wrong to suggest, was and is, the true national game in both India and Australia. This is precisely because it could be played against the English as part of the great imperial project. Hockey in India or Aussie Rules in Australia could not, and hence their legacies, like their origins, remain very curious in the sporting hierarchies of the two countries. It is important

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He came home early again. Hands were shaking. Anxiety attacks all morning one after another. Unable to spend another day in the office alone. This morning, I was all tied up when he called me - after reading more about Russia and Georgia. War Games flashing behind my eyes. Tic Tac Toe. "I'm not about this. It's all capitalistic bullshit. It's not where I want to be."Then he tells me about

I'm trying to get my brain around (metaphorically) Nancy Pelosi's "handmaiden war dance" metaphor. I looked it up and handmaidens don't ever seem have been responsible for appeasing the gods of war. They were concubines or priest/priestess assistants, especially helpful in orgiastic sex rituals (so it says), according to wikipedia. The closest I could find to handmaidens and war is an actual

My holiday starts tomorrow, so there will be no posting until mid August. I do however want to keep you busy in the meantime. A valued reader the other day kept us Fibre Ringers busy with this quote: The necessity question seems to be cleared, the new Scylla is "the profit in waiting just a tiny bit longer", the new Charybdis: "how massive will the losses be because of waiting too

In my previous post, I talked about a method for constructing poems that has been successful for me in the past, and why this method works for me. It is, essentially, a writing game in which I... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

I was struck by the starkness of this caged rose (?) bush, pre-bloom. Your mind immediately fills in the thorny, skeletal limbs with the beautiful blushes to come.

Here’s an item from today’s London Sun tabloid. For those who know the Sun — rest assured. It features a bird, but not that kind of bird.

Thanks everyone for your comments to yesterday's post. It seems like self-sabotage and the "all or nothing" mentality can be quite common. And a physique transformation is just one way this "mind games" can manifest, often becoming a metaphor or a reflection of other areas of our lives. I think Bob came very close to the reason why I self-sabotage myself. It's a fear of reboun

A knot is a useful tool for many purpose, and is one of the oldest tools used by people. The king of knots, called the Bowline Knot, functions as a very useful rescue tool, a tool to anchor ships to posts, a tool for lifting object or people, a tool for hanging things, and so  many other purposes. [...]

Enriquillo Amiama: Target and Flower 160x137cm: Acrylic on Canvas:2007 2008-04-03 until 2008-04-30 Galleria Bellarte Seoul, Korea AbsoluteArts: Galleria Bellarte in Seoul, Korea is proud to...

My fridge is so dirty that every time I open it, I die a little inside. No, really, it’s that dirty. Drips of brown mystery liquid dot the bottom lip, containers of 10-day-old Thai food litter the shelves, and there are about 30 half-full strawberry yogurt containers holding the rejected strawberries that I have to scoop out [...]

I get a lot of comments and questions from people asking me why a “Living on Adsense Blog” does not have any Adsense ads anywhere on the pages. I used to have Adsense ads, this used to be a true adsense blog. Now it is just a metaphor. I keep my Adsense ads [...]

At some point every metaphor breaks down.  I've been running with the metaphor of a youth ministry greenhouse, and it has worked well for many aspects of youth ministry.  However, it breaks down in evangelism because the power of Christ transforms weeds into oak trees.  Also, a greenh...

There is a popular legend about an area of the Atlantic Ocean where airplanes and ships have supposedly been mysteriously disappearing for years, making it a dangerous place to sail or fly over. Many explanations, both convincing and far-out, have been given for what happens in this area, but I'll leave that for others to explain. My purpose here is to explain how I occasionally use concept this as a therapeutic metaphor.My use of the phrase "emotional Bermuda triangle" refers to a risky psychological area that people can get themselves into but don't always easily escape. This area is bounded by depression on one side, anxiety on another and obsession on the third. Here's how it works:We all get sad, but sometimes people fall into depressive funks that cause them to interpret the events of their life in a consistently negative way. When they struggle to escape this depressive outlook it unfortunately sometimes comes at the high cost of increasing their sense of anxiety. I've

Recently, someone commented on my blog, asking me to speak about what motivates people since I think I am such a good marketer. I thought that I had been addressing this in many roundabout ways, but I guess I was not being clear. So Danielle: What motivates people? Well, in the eyes of the marketer, [...]

I’m glad that PBS took the time to address the ongoing political contraversy of evolution vs. intelligent design. Unfortunately, it took until minute 28 of a two hour special until I heard an intelligent argument either way (note: argument 2 is found at 42 minutes if one isolated set of fossils is an argument) As a show thats presented as somehow resolving or addressing the issue–this comes up remarkably short. While I the respect folks that produced the documentary and that uphold a robust (or even radical) version of evolution, I think its scientific case as a creation story is intellectually dishonest and dubious. But I hope a more informed national discussion about the issue will yield some helpful intellectual strides. Intitially, they put gravity in the same category as evolution. (Are you kidding me?) The evidence for or falsifisability of evolution is hardly the level of what gravity is. Second, they fail to get at the nuance–the third option. In one h

I seem to be writing a lot about metaphors I use from time to time in therapy. The fact is that I don't use metaphors all the time, nor do I use any of the ones I'm writing about a lot, but I think they're fun, sometimes they're very useful, and I'm finding them easy to write about.From time to time a client just starting therapy may profess some confusion about what to talk about. This can especially be the case with people who have a lot of issues going on or who haven't previously talked much about their life experiences and are unaccustomed to organizing their thoughts into a linear narrative. There are a lot of ways I help them ease into a productive discussion, from simply asking "what do you want to change in your life" to suggesting that we focus on whatever is causing the most distress, to asking what happened that lead to the decision to pick up the phone and schedule an appointment. Since I like to cover a lot of ground with my clients from the first meeting, I am

Also a possibility . . .

Sometimes clients describe situations in which they are arguing with another person in their lives (usually a significant other) where it seems like everything they say or do gets turned against them. At such times I may ask if they've ever watched a Japanese monster movie such as Mothra, Gamera or Godzilla. Such monsters are generically called "kaiju", Japanese for "strange beast". I bring this up because one of the qualities of many kaiju is the ability to absorb whatever energy is used to try to stop them. Bullets, bombs, even atomic explosions just make them larger and more powerful. Some people act the same way in arguments. Whatever you throw at them will only feed their destructive energy. It's unfair, it's verbally abusive, it's jerk-like behavior, but none of that matters when it's happening. The best thing to do is to recognize what you are up against and pull the plug. Walk away. At most you have one shot to say "that's verbally abusive, stop it or I'm leaving

Here's a graphic image I use from time to time when a person is experiencing a lot of emotional turmoil from a past event despite having worked hard to come to overcome its legacy. Have you ever seen a pan used to cook a turkey after the bird is removed? There is a lot of baked-on 'crud' at the bottom of the pan. After soaking, sudsing and lots of elbow grease the water in the pan is going to look very unappetizing. When you pour the water out you will discover even more layers of baked-on residue. Do you throw out the pan or quit cleaning it? No, you soak it again and then scrub some more, even though you are likely to find that the water is still nasty-looking as gunk continues to rise from the bottom! A turkey pan needs several cycles of soaking and scrubbing before the water is going to stay clean. The point is that a lot of emotional trauma and turmoil doesn't come off easily. But the good news is that all that mess repeatedly rising up from the bottom is a sure sign t

Celebrities Interview - Exclusive : "Cigarette as metaphor addresses every issue of life" - Anu Stats : 1 Post http://www.wowmails.com

It is just possible that I've bitten off a little more than I can chew...

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world.

Gluten sensitivity and celiac disease are part of a hidden epidemic. Most people are unfamiliar with the term gluten. This improved after the recent outbreak of cats and dogs dying in the U.S. from pet food made with wheat gluten from China contaminated by the chemical melamine. Gluten has been linked to various autoimmune conditions. Links to food or chemicals to fibromyalgia, autism spectrum disorder, chronic fatigue, IBS, multiple sclerosis, and headaches appear strong but difficult to prove.Is there a link between what we eat and the epidemic of unexplained illness? Is our food supply safe? Are organic foods just more expensive? Are we experiencing irrational fears about processed and non-organic foods that are less expensive and just as safe? Watch this chilling video about the future of food. There is a debate whether allergic or eosinophilic esophagitis is increasing or just being more commonly recognized. Autism appears to rising. One estimate is 1/166. Celiac disease is estima

An essential skill for good emotional health is being able to manage our emotions so they don't rule us. It's appropriate to experience a wide range of emotions, including all types of anxiety, sadness, anger, happiness, etc. Our goal should be the ability to experience these emotions in such a way that they influence but don't control us. Picture a person struggling to walk a large and unruly dog through a park. Every time that untrained dog sees a squirrel he is likely to chase after it, dragging the poor human on the other end of the leash through the bushes. This is the way some people are with their emotions. Any direction their feelings take them, that's where they're going to go whether they like it or not. It takes a lot of effort to discipline your emotions, but the results are well worth it.I enjoy reading jokes from different eras, and I remember one from the 1920's, in which a rich woman told her butler to walk her beloved poodle Fifi through the park. The haug

Here's another in my on-going series of therapeutic metaphors that I occasionally use in my counseling practice. I often come across situations in which a person demonstrates many fine and admirable attributes while also possessing one tragic flaw that outweighs all of his or her positive qualities. For instance, a woman may be enthralled by a man who is a hard worker, funny, exciting and romantic, but if he occasionally gets drunk and violent this negative feature can quickly negate all of those positive qualities. In pointing this out I might remark that the Titanic was an absolutely wonderful ship except for one problem....the hole under the surface that sunk it. We all have character flaws, and it's generally best when they are visible to ourselves and others so that they can be recognized and dealt with openly. But certain issues are so hard for some people to face that they are kept hidden "below the waterline" where they go unnoticed until the damage that has been done is

I think I picked up the following metaphor from either Janet Woititz or Claudia Black, both highly respected authors in the field of addiction and families. This metaphor addresses the common tendency for two people with specific histories of family dysfunction to find each other, develop a mutual attraction, form an intimate relationship, and then inexorably begin acting out a pattern of behaviors that recreates the unfinished business of each of their families of origin. In other words, both you and your partner start off thinking you're going to get away from whatever it was in your childhood that messed you up, only to find it surface in your relationship with each other.How is it that two people can attract each other like magnets in such a way that each one inevitably pulls the other into an all-too-familiar dance that is often generations old, especially when so many other people wouldn't put up with it for a minute? Is it coincidence? Are they just unlucky? Cursed? No, t

I was sunning myself yesterday, sitting on a lounge chair next to my pool while Chicky slept, when I had the odd feeling that someone was watching me. And there was. A fluffy little bird (maybe a Winter Wren?) was sitting on the edge of my pool not seven feet away from me. Just sitting there. Not moving. Looking at me. That's odd, I thought, I didn't notice that bird fly over here. I must

While some goals are achievable, others are aspirational, meaning they can never be fully reached. Both achievable and aspirational goals are important to have in our lives. For instance, if I want to lose a certain amount of weight, this is a definitive goal that I am capable of achieving. But I also may want to be more accepting and less resentful of other people. Even though I'll never fully achieve this goal, I can judge my progress by the degree to which I keep my emotional poise, especially in challenging situations.For centuries sailors crossed oceans using the North Star to chart their course. Although the wind and tides constantly pushed them off course, they were able to use the unwavering location of the North Star to determine how far they had drifted and to plot a return back to their destination. You never reach the North Star, of course. It always remains unreachable, but it also always remains a beacon to guide and inspire your progress.What is your North Star? W

I've written a lot about "therapeutic distinctions" in previous posts, so now I'm going to turn my attention to an occasional series of posts regarding various therapeutic metaphors that I use from time to time in my session work with clients. I find metaphors to be excellent ways of highlighting concepts that people can find useful in their lives, often in subtle and unexpected ways. The first one is about sunflower seeds. Have you ever eaten sunflower seeds out of the shell? You pop a few into your mouth, split the shells with your teeth and extract the seeds with your tongue. The final step is to spit out the shells and eat the seeds. You sure don’t either spit out or swallow the whole thing. This can be a good metaphor for being selective about what you take into yourself. Take two people who may love each other but are having a heated argument. Sometimes people get so frustrated that they get their feelings really hurt by the slightest thoughtless thing their partner s

I saw a list of DVD movie sales recently and noticed that the "fullscreen" format continues to sell briskly, sometimes even outpacing the widescreen version of the same movie. I have a theory about why people continue to watch fullscreen rather than widescreen formats when they have the choice. I think that a lot of folks don't like the blank spaces at the top and bottom of the screen so much

On YouTube, there is a Google Tech Talk video entitled Turning the Pages on an E-Book—Realistic Electronic Books, by Veronica Liesaputra, PhD candidate at the University of Waikato, in which she discusses her research on realistic e-books. Beginning with a definition of e-books, she goes on to look at the mental model that readers use to make sense of what they are viewing: An electronic book is defined as a digital book that not only captures the affordances of a physical book, but also transcends the limitations of its paper counterpart. There is much debate as to whether the use of the book metaphor is appropriate for an electronic document. User studies suggest that current popular document presentations (HTML and PDF) are not always the most convenient, or the most comfortable, for the reader. On the other hand, while realistic physically-based computer models of books have been around for years, they are rarely deployed in practice. The talk reviewed computer graphics models

Broken lines, broken strings,Broken threads, broken springs,Broken idols, broken heads,People sleeping in broken beds.Ain't no use jivingAin't no use jokingEverything is broken. ~ Bob Dylan My apologies. If you tried to use the broken link to the article in on art in the July issue of License! Global Digital Edition magazine in my previous post. It's been fixed with many thanks to Sue O'Kieffe who notified me. It's linked again above to the proper page in the digital version of the July issue. To apply for your own digital subscription, use this link: https://www.advanstar.com/subscriptions/subscribe.asp?subid=180&ac=a&cid=&esc=L0707W If you think about it, links to your customers and prospects are the lifeline to your business. When they are broken, so is your business. Conversely, the more links you have and the stronger they are, the more prospersous your art business will be. Good links are at the heart of very important Google page ranks. The smart folks there l

My dear old Mom won’t let anybody buy her flowers. She says she can’t stand to watch them die. Which is probably a bit like saying she wouldn’t own a puppy because she doesn’t want to see it grow old, or read a book because she can’t stand that it will end, or better yet, eat a chocolate because then it would all be gone and all she’d have left to remind her of the wonderful experience is the foil wrapper. Whether you believe in the divine creator or the Big Bang theory, there’s something to be said for whoever (or whatever!) created flowers. I ask you. . . who is not awed by the beauty of a spring rose, fresh with dew, or the fresh appeal of a yellow buttercup, or the fiesta of colors in a bunch of gerberas (beautiful flowers, awful name!) We’ve come to associate the germination and birth of a flower with life itself. We talk about children “blossoming”, the “rosy red glow” of a pregnant woman or “happy as

Otep Shamaya is known largely for the hard rock band she leads under her own name. Few people know about her roots in poetry. In an interview with Metaphor Magazine, laced over her band's May 25th performance in Minneapolis, Otep discusses how poetry

This is really cool!  Liz Strauss at Successful Blog has completed the Blogging Metaphor Project, and  Romance Tracker’s post on 10 Reasons Why Blogging is Like Dating has been chosen as one of the ten winners. Even cooler: as a winner, Romnace Tracker is going to receive an autographed copy of Lorelle’s book “Blogging Tips–What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging.”  It’s strange to learn that I’ll be getting a free copy of this great book, because I was actually already thinking about ordering it! I’m sure “Blogging Tips” will help me improve Romance Tracker and make it even better for our regualr readers.  Kudos to Liz Strauss for running such a super blog project and inspiring so much good writing!  I’m going to reproduce the entire list of entries below, and I hope you check them all out if you get a chance. What metaphor do you use to explain blogging? at Ian’s Messy Desk Blogging Metaphor–Th

Recently, Liz Strauss set out a challenge to those of us who blog - write a blog post using a metaphor to describe blogging to help introduce or explain what blogging is to others. In taking up this challenge, I decided to do so looking at business blogs which is where both my interest and my professional focus lies. From this perspective, I would liken a business blog to a Swiss Army Knife (SAK). Like the Swiss Army Knife, I consider a Business Blog to be a tool which has 101 possible uses. All self contained, it gives the owner a range of options as to how to use it which will vary according to the situation that they find themselves in at the time. Often, the trouble is understanding all of the possible uses and then deciding which is the most appropriate for a given situation. It is something which is easy to use at a basic level but if you want to use it properly then it demands time and attention. When someone has taken the trouble to explore and understand the tool, has discover

that bird obviously hates freedom and liberty and is only emoldening our enemies.

Here, we see Lenny's buddy mixing the metaphors, but it's harmless, because whether you are cutting the cheese, passing the gas, or (like Lenny's buddy apparently likes to say) cutting the gas, it all means the same thing.Now, why he's telling Lenny to fart at that particular moment is anyone's guess.

Elliot at Claw of the Conciliator has a humorous post on mythological imagery in fantasy and science fiction in tandem with Christian themes:Seeker: So, what do Good Friday and Easter mean, anyways?Jane Christian: It's like Gandalf fighting the Balrog, sacrificing his life to save his friends, going down into the depths of Hell to defeat evil, at the cost of his own life. And then coming back, even greater than before, to lead his friends on to victory!John Christian: That simply isn't Lewisian enough. I prefer to think of it in terms of Aslan's death on the Stone Table - the penalty for Edmund's crime had to be paid, but in order to spare him, Aslan took that penalty upon himself. And in so doing, he subverted, or superverted, the old law of the Deep Magic... [more...]

Paulette chose the perfect metaphor to describe an affliction affecting many people in the Buffalo area.  I have often referred to this same affliction by saying that people are failing to address the root cause(s) of our economic decline.  It happens when people use window dressing and sleight of hand techniques while claiming progress.  In reality, they are just perpetuating the problems that plague us. Imagine your doctor discovering that you have an aggressive and life-threatening medical condition and telling you that accentuating the positive, making yourself look nice and saying great things about it will lead to your cure. That doctor would be sued so quickly his or her head would spin. Technorati Tags: big government, social programs, waste, economy, decline, Buffalo, New York, libertarian Sponsored By: Images by Mike in WNY Unique and Original Buffalo Themed Gifts

Scorcher, Wretch 32 and Logan Sama showed up on day two of Vice Kills Barcelona. I didn't really see them during the day because they arrived quite late. They were funny to hang out with though. Wretch tried to say I'd given his mixtape a bad review (which he was totally cool about) but I was sure I hadn't even reviewed it, and I checked when I got back and I was right. Hold tight me.Logan, Scorcher and Wretch got kicked out of their hotel the morning of their flight (which was at 9 PM that night) so spent most of the day sat in McDonald's with their suitcases. They then went and did a bit of shopping before we all headed to the airport. We were at the airport for ages 'cos the flight was delayed, and every time one of the MCs got lost, they'd shout "sho'" really loudly and wait for someone to reply. It worked really well - I'm gonna try it out next time I lose my parents in the supermarket.So yeah, when we got on the plane, Wretch started pretending he was really terrified of

pleasei charge a allegory for a city-limits or a abode you like to go appointment and an alitteration..please...