This is a “Best of…” article, I’ve selected my favorite 10
articles and presenting them with a little insight as to why each story is my
favorite…for the sake of simplicity, these are organized from the oldest to the
most current articles. I hope you like this and get a sense of my entire blog
serial by tasting these ten articles!
So, without further d’Lay…here’s my
favorite ten!
The first article happens to be the first article in the
blog “The Introduction…” and I like it because, aside from being from the book “My
BiPolar Reality; How Life Goes On…”, I think it’s an excellent opening article
which truly befits this blog’s intentions…so here it is,
"The Introduction"
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| Valerie born on 11/18/1983 |
The next one I’d like to share is from November of 2014, an
article to remember my late daughter on what would have been her 31
st
birthday…This also contains an excerpt from the book but my favorite part is
the bit after the excerpt where I’m sort of “shooting the shit” about the issue…I
like the raw feeling elements and you might too in
"Its'All About A Girl..."
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| A "Point of View (POV)" not a selfie! |
My next favorite article was the first one I wrote in 2015,
on January 6
th and it’s a popular one which I think is STILL
RELEVANT…it’s a good thing to ponder. I wrote this piece because of the number
of people who take selfies of themselves, posting them endlessly and always,
always looking for some kind of validation. “See me here! See me there! Look at
me eat! I’m with this person you don’t know, but isn’t it great!” and on and
on, a stream of silly faces, shameless mugs and pucker-up cute poses that serve
no real purpose. After writing this article, over the course of 2015 there were
12 people who died as a direct result of taking selfies…12 people, that’s more
people who’ve died than from shark attacks (8) or marijuana consumption (0)! I
hope you dig
"The
War on Selfies!"
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| Ann "Sunshine Daydream" Coulter |
The next pair of articles sort of go together and are part
of a longer series of articles that centered around The Grateful Dead’s final
shows in Santa Clara and Chicago this past summer…the first article is a parody
piece regarding right-wing neo conservative author Ann Coulter’s claim to be a
Deadhead, last summer, in fact…EVERYBODY said they were a Deadhead! This
article also stands as the most read article in this blog and the most controversial,
it pissed off both the left and the right! I hope you like
"Ann Coulter Exposed!" but the next article,
"Stories of Our Own...My Last Grateful Dead Show!" is about exactly just that…my very last Grateful Dead show, June 27, 2015! I’m including this story for purely sentimental reasons because ‘15 will forevermore stand as the last time I saw the remnants of The Grateful Dead perform live!
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| The Grateful Dead in Santa Clara, California on June 27, 2015...My Last Show Ever. |
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| The Greatest Commodity is Time... |
The next article is from 20 July of 2015 and I like it
because it’s a well written, thoughtful article and pin points where my
feelings for not enjoying my on-line experiences starts. As you may know, I’ve
developed something of a “love/hate” relationship with my on-line activities,
an issue I’ve been struggling with for the last part of this year and this
article is a telling clue about why I’m feeling the way I do lately. I think it’s
clever and I hope you do too, please enjoy
"Time is Money; THE BIG LIE!"
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| One of the issues I rally behind... |
In
"TheyJust Don't Get It", an article published on 29 July 2015, I tell a
story about a heated interaction I had while promoting the book last summer; at
the time it also marked the largest single day sales of the book. I like this
because I like the memory, although at the time it really pissed me off! At
this gathering of business people, 90% of the white, conservatives I had an
intense exchange about the minimum wage and marijuana! It got loud, there were
business dudes yelling at me, their faces getting beet red as if their ties
were tightly tied around their narrow-minded necks! It was a fiery deliberation
and truthfully, I lost about a half dozen events as a result of this loud and
rude event, but it was worth it! I still like the memory, this story captures
the feelings well and that’s why it’s included in this top ten list!
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| I hate my smartphone... |
I like
"Fear and Loathing in The Palm of Your Hand" because of the message I was
trying to convey…there’s too much #fearporn everywhere, do we really need it in
the palm of our hands too? Although this article did not garner the attention I
hoped, I think it’s an important idea and something I’ll probably further
explore in future work.
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| Passion and Desire in Summer |
Not all of my articles are about the book or other “serious”
subjects, this article,
"BlogArticle #69", is about pure sexual expression and the desires I have
for someone…it’s my way to share this “forbidden” feelings aloud. I did manage
to capture the attention of a certain someone with this article, that was the
goal but DON’T READ THIS if you are easily offended by sexual content!
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| I'm meditating on a roof in North Carolina in '84 |
"LeggoMy Ego" made this list because not only did it seem to make a positive
difference for other people, but my mother said it’s her favorite article in
this blog serial (and believe me, she reads ALL of them)! I try to explain the
importance and benefits I find in meditation, again related directly to the
book “My BiPolar Reality; How Life Goes On…” (I talk about meditation’s role in
my recovery).
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| Mozzie the one eye rat dog and me in November, '15 |
So there you have the ten stories I most prefer from
“TheBiPolar Reality Dispatch” series of articles…I hope you like them and they
guide you to other articles in this blog or perhaps my books, my website (
www.dphilipchalmers.net) or my next
blog serial series!
There are two more articles to this complete this series,
next week is a “Christmas” story of sorts and then the final article will post
on the last day of 2015, Thursday 31 December which borrows a tile from a Paul
McCartney song of the same name “The End of The End” and then, who knows when
you’ll find me on-line again!
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| The Fowler Farm Estate in August of 2014 |
Before I go today (Friday, 18 December) I've some other news too; we had an upsetting event happen regarding our place of residence. Since relocating to California, in June of '14, we leased this old farmhouse on the edge of the Modesto area. It's a quaint old building, built in 1907 by one of Modesto/Ceres founding families (The Fowlers), it was originally the house where the foreman lived but in the 1990s the family sold the last of the land to the village and several ticky-tacky housing subdivisions, elementary schools and strip shopping centers have sprouted up all around the former peach and citrus orchards. The lone farmhouse remained on a large lot, still in tact and provided ample space, some privacy and a bit of charm.
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| The farmhouse on 18 December 2015... |
In 2007 the original owners (Fowler), finally sold the old farmhouse but the property was flipped several times until it fell into complete disrepair when the present owner (Gilberto from Portugal) purchased it in 2014. We are his first tenants since he fixed up the house and it was clear to us that he planned to eventually build several more houses on the remaining open land...we have a month-to-month agreement with the understanding that he may decide to demolish the old farmhouse and if so, he would serve us 60 days notice...we got that notice this past Monday. We need to move, relocate to some place else by February 1st and so, as we glide through the holiday, we're doing some research and scouting for a new place to live. Presently our options are wide open, we can go about any place we want but we're staying in California! We don't much care for the Modesto area...actually the best thing about Modesto is that it's NOT Stockton! The coastal communities are too expensive, congested and not really my scene but the mountains are too remote for the wife's career and the kid's socialization/education and such...we did like Sacramento so we're going for another visit soon, I know some people in Santa Rosa who think we'd like it there too, so I guess we'll see...but since we've got to move, we're gonna get the hell out of Modesto and The San Joaquin basin now!
So my friends, please stay tuned for the next couple of
articles, be sure to subscribe to stay in touch and we’ll see you next week!
