Normal and pixilized Images

Some one, smarter than I am, wrote to me and told me that the word is not "pixilized", but "pixilated".
Okay, shoot me...
What's more, this audacious person wanted to see the original image, the one prior to my, as he put it, vandalizing it. Actually I probably, to remain with his criticism, did not "vandalize" but "vandalate" this image.
However this may be. Here are the original pictures and the ones I "vandalized"... or is it "vandalated":

a single pedal of a rose, wind driven, on our lawn.

This same image, pixilized to make a square  rose pedal.

roses are roses, (above) 

but not if they become "vandalated" (below)

Is a rose always a rose ?

well, as mentioned earlier, Gertrude Stein claimed that 
                        "A Rose is a Rose is a Rose !"
I suppose that Gertrude did not have an opportunity to fool around with the picture of a rose on a computer.
I took a picture of a single rose pedal on our lawn and then I "pixilized" the image.
Fascinating to find that such a computer image ( a picture taken with a digital camera and transferred to a laptop ) consists of uncountable little squares, called "pixels" ...
so I wondered: If a single rose pedal, lying on the lawn looks like that, how would a number of roses look ?

              Down here are the results of this tomfoolery.

3 out of 10 ?

A friend told me the old joke about God trying to interest some people in his Commandments. He was not having much luck until he met an Israelite, who, when told that these commandments were for free, said: "In this case gimme ten".

I must have heard this joke 50 or more years ago, but, being a courteous man I listened to the very end and then dutifully laughed and said: "That's a good one".

Through this hackneyed story, I became interested in the subject, since I had not given it much thought lately, and started to read up on the 10 Commandments in the "Catechism of the Catholic Church".

Exodus 20 2-17

Right off the bat, God tells the Israelites that
"I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage".

Here, God tells his people not to forget who he is. He is counting on their gratitude, since he has "brought them out of the house of bondage.

He then continues to fortify his singular position amongst the people:
"You shall have no other Gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth."
 Does that mean that all the pictures you may see in every Catholic church are a transgression of this Commandment? Surely one cannot miss the pictures of an elderly gentleman with a flowing white beard !
And since it is clearly stated elsewhere that Jesus is, at the same time, the Son of God, as well as God himself, the display of him languishing and dying on a cross absolutely must fall in the prohibition  expressed above.

The prohibition not to make a graven image of anything that is "in" the earth or in the water "under" the earth would surely condemn every painter and sculpturer whose work graces every church, museum, art gallery and most homes. ( I am not sure of the meaning of "in" instead of "on", nor of the expression: ...in the water "under" the earth.) Certainly every Church I have ever visited is jam packed full of transgression of this commandment.

"You shall not bow down to them or serve them."
This seems to forbid the adoration of such "graven images", while the foregoing forbids the very "making" of such likenesses.

"For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God"

Once again he reminds the people of his standing: "I the Lord, your God"
And now He reveals a very human weakness: ...
I am a jealous God...
Do I get something wrong here ? 'Jealousy' surely is a result of a feeling of inadequacy.
Why would I be jealous of another man, because my Wife, my Beloved seems to pay attention to him ?
If I felt certain of myself, certain of my qualities (in the case of the Lord "superior" qualities) then the very human feeling of jealousy, coupled with a fear of losing my Wife, my Beloved, would never arise.
So why would the Lord be "jealous" ? Or is there another interpretation of the word ?

"visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me"

For a moment I feared that 'iniquity' is something which can be inherited, stuck in the genes, but No, every dictionary tells me it means 'wickedness, immorality, evil' and a few more of that ilk.
So, our "all loving" "all forgiving"  "All Just" Lord, our God, will take a man's transgressions out on his children, grand children, great grand children and great great grand children. He, the jealous one will seek revenge on the fourth generation after the sinner, although they may be as pure as the driven snow and may lead an exemplary Christian Life. 

"but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."

So there you have it: The Lord, God, the Creator loves his creation very very conditionally.
In His book there is no 'unconditional love'.
If you're good, and that means if you do as He says, he will show you "steadfast love"
But if you're bad, forget it ! The Lord's vengeance will reach out not only for you but for all your yet unborn children and children's children... and so on... Is this what we call "Justice"?

"You shall  not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain."

So, if I hit my thumb with a hammer, I must not ever cry out: Jeeeesus Chriiist.

Seriously though, this commandment again speaks of the vanity, jealousy, and self centered attitude of the Christian God.
I believe that the Lord of the Bible has all these human attributes, because the Book was written by men, who probably asked themselves: How would I feel ? What would I do ? 

"Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work.
but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord, your God...

There is more to this commandment. Details, details, but it is a little like this: 
I, The Lord, your god, rested on the seventh day, and so shall you.!

So far we have heard how Great  I am and how you must adore me or else.
It has all been about Me, Me, Me

The rest of the commandments, almost after thoughts, are about some of the things we must do or  not do because they would hurt our neighbours:
Honour your parents, don't kill, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't  lie, don't make eyes at your neighbours mate....
and there is an interesting point: The commandment actually says:

"You shall not covet your neighbours wife"

What about coveting your neighbour's HUSBAND ?

It seems that according to those commandments it's perfectly Okay for a woman-neighbour, to have the hots for her male neighbour.  Isn't that precious ?
Just another example that this Book was written by a bunch of guys on a lazy Sabbath afternoon.

I find it interesting that there is no suggestion in the 10 commandments that we should 
"do unto our neighbours as we would wish them to do unto us."
that would pretty well wrap it up.
so thinks

Bertstravels.

Not Just Roses

So you think we've got nothing but roses in our garden ?
You couldn't be more wrong !
We've got Fuchsias.
Have a look :

Roses in our back garden

William Shakespeare said :
A Rose, by any other name, still smells as sweet !

Gertrude Stein was more to the point, when she said:
A rose is a rose is a rose !

I, being not in their class, just say:
Ain't they just beauts ?

The 6th day of June

On this day, in 1944, the liberation of Europe commenced in earnest.
It was later called "D-Day"
The day on which the first of 160,000 troops landed on the beaches of France, right into a murderous cross fire of German defenders. The Allied Forces had about 12,000 casualties, including 4,400 confirmed dead.
The German troops lost approximately 1,000 of their soldiers.
I could belabour you with unending statistics, but all of this information you may find in numerous entries in 'Wikepedia'.

Let me just discuss, briefly the oft debated question:
Was Germany 'liberated' or was the country 'defeated' ?
There is no question that the rest of Europe was indeed 'liberated' from Germany's brutal occupation.
Many of my contemporaries are steadfast in their opinion that Germany was not liberated but defeated.
I think I may have the answer: The 'National Socialist' regime and its army were defeated.
The People of Germany and Austria were 'liberated' !
Liberated from the cruelest dictatorship modern history has known. Liberated from the Nazi slogan:
"Our struggle is for Peace, Freedom and Bread". (Frieden, Freiheit und Brot), when, in fact the people of Germany (and that included Austria) rarely had less of those, in fact, they had No Peace, No Freedom and very little Bread.
In May of 1955 the then Austrian Foreign Minister, Leopold Figl, from the balcony of Belvedere Castle,  in Vienna, waved the "Staatsvertrag" and announced to one and all: "Österreich ist frei."
When, I believe, he should have said: "Österreich war befreit am 8. Mai 1945, (Austria was liberated on the 8th May 1945)  and this document is the final affirmation of its Liberty".

Bertstravels.

A Dying Breed

The profession of  'chimney sweeps' fortunately is slowly dying out, due to heating being achieved more and more by electric power, gas and oil and less and less by coal.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th Century the Chimney Sweep was a most needed and respected profession.
A master sweeper would engage a number of young boys, some as young as 6 years of age, since 4 & 5 year olds were not strong enough for this grueling task. The boys were taught to climb up chimney stacks, by using their back and knees to wedge themselves up a soot-laden chimney.
If you read the history of these children you will find it hard to believe how they were mistreated:
They were either obtained from a "home for parentless youth", or purchased from their parents for about 7 shillings. They were then trained to climb chimneys and by wearing a hat with stiff bristles, and by wire brushes in their hands it was their task to loosen the soot from the walls of the chimneys. After having cleaned 4 to 6 chimneys they would be taken to the Masters home where they slept in the basement. 
They were given sufficient water to wash themselves,  at the best of times once a week and in some cases only 3 times a year:
At Christmas, Easter and one other religious holiday.
The cruelty with which these children were kept almost as slaves and prisoners is today incomprehensible.
For their labours they received no pay, but were fed by their masters.
When they had suffered an injury or grown too big to climb inside these chimneys, they were simply put upon the street, or sent back to their parents.

Today, sweeping is a rare and dying profession and 'sweeping boys' are of course no longer used.

Two Chimney Sweeps ( one a young woman ) in Vienna.

Today, the actual sweeping is accomplished by motorized brushes from above.

Source: Wikepedia.