I love the fact that spiders freeze in the winter and they don’t come back until the next spring.  I love the leaves that fall in the fall.  I love them even more when someone else has to rake them even though I’d rather just leave them on the ground.  I love the lake in the summer but I don’t like big boats.  In the fall, the big boats all get hauled away.  I love that.  I really don’t love ski mobiles but I love it when I see them on the lake and know that I can imagine the ice breaking and them falling in along with their riders.  I don’t think I want the riders to seriously injure themselves but I love thinking of them getting totally wet and freezing their various body parts off.  I love white snow, except when I have to shovel it off the roof or scrape it off my car.

In the spring, I love seeing the trees growing new leaves and buds even though I know it means that the wood ticks will not be far behind.  I can always stay indoors with my cats.  That reminds me, I love my cats.  They are very funny and I think they love me.  They purr a lot when I’m petting them.  This could be just an instinct but I like to think of it as love.  I also love my computer, but I know it has very few feeling for me, one way or another.

~ Bob Zaboo  

Someone asked me once, “What do computers think?”  I didn’t have a readily available answer for them.  I know my own computer has a lot of thoughts.  It wonders whether or not I like it, for one thing.  My computer also lets me know if I’m pushing it too hard or expecting more out of it than it is prepared to provide.  For instance, sometimes, when I have a whole bunch of windows open at the same time, my computer purposely reacts slowly to everything.  Sometimes, my computer gets so annoyed at me that it fails to even acknowledge that I’ve clicked the mouse button.  It especially dislikes this when I click multiple times while waiting for it to respond to my first clicks.

This still doesn’t answer the question about what computers think.  Like us, they have electrical impulses that help them think.  Even though they can only think in zeros and ones, it doesn’t mean that the end result of their thinking is so narrowly defined.  For instance, my computer, or at least the software that my computer uses to do things, can tell me what time an appointment is and whether or not I am late for it.  Since I’m not able to readily read zeros and ones (I’m not that strange), the computer has to interpret this for me.  So, the end results are a lot more than just zeros and ones.

The only answer available, given human limitations, is that computers think in ways that humans are not yet, and may not ever, be able to understand.  I do not know if thinking about this too much will make humans reluctant to use computers.  What if the computers do not like being used?

~ Bob Zaboo

There are a few different ways to approach the subject, or reality, of death and dying.  Most of us consider death to be tragic and yet most of us would also agree that it is inevitable.  As much as anyone has tried to defy their or other’s physical deaths, the outcome is always the same.  This has been going on since man first came into being and, undoubtedly, many, many millennium before that.

So to write something to people to help them deal with their or a loved one’s eminent demise is not an easy thing to do.  Denial of bad things is good if it helps in a cure or remission.  It is useless in trying to avoid the unavoidable.  Acceptance seems like just giving up and who, except a suicidal person, wants to just give up? We can be as angry as we want about it.  We can throw things around and curse Bob (thee or not thee Bob), our friends, family and anyone else who can hear us.  None of this outrage will exempt us from what must happen.

I have revolted against death all of my life even while some of my habits or lack of them taunt death to my very doorstep.   Still, I do these rebellious things out of defiance to the fate that awaits us all. People die and, whether we like it or not, we must get over it—or not.  Personally, I refuse to submit to the inevitable.   It is a useless stance to take, of course, but I take it anyway.   Somewhere, I keep hoping, there is mercy or tenderness enough to stop death from happening.  However, I do admit that despite my yearnings life and death will continue on ad infinitum.

~ Bob Zaboo

Monty Python were a group of unusual comedians that came across as being quite strange and, in a word, different.  Actually they were often completely different.  The television show of the same name, by the same group of comedians, was so outrageously different that they often had to announce that they were going to do something completely different—and they did, often, without much fanfare.  Cartoons portraying little things float across the screen eating other little things were quite common in the many episodes that millions of people forced themselves to watch even though they could have been out getting their nose hairs trimmed or accomplishing some other useful errands.  The television series was on during a time that most people forget about, which is to say it was during a time of history that most people would like to remember but often cannot.  Part of the reason for the above stated memory loss was due to practices of the time and part is due to the passage of time.  Few participants in the events have enough money to find out the real reason and most just ignore the implications anyway.  Monty Python was typical but not much like other British comedy of the time and even since that time.  All sorts of quotations are used from the series.  Spam is a common one, although I’m not sure why people are worried about cheap, greasy meat that comes in a tin can that has a little key that you use to fold back the top.

~ Bob Zaboo