One of the interesting things in the Bible is just how many donkeys find themselves in the picture.

In particular I was struck by the donkey Balaam is riding which encounters an Angel and is given the power to speak after being unjustly punished in Numbers 22:28.

Today is the Feast of the Ass and was a religious holiday observed by medieval Christians each January 14.

It celebrates the flight into Egypt by Joseph, Mary, and the infant Christ and the donkey which bore them in particular to escape persecution by King Herod.

This day also celebrates the various biblical stories which feature donkeys such as Palm Sunday and Christ's arrival in Jerusalem riding a donkey colt.

All of this gives me pause to consider the station of the donkey in matters of spirituality. Can an animal who appears in scripture performing essential duties for the people featured therein truly be "lowly" ?

After all, the work of The Almighty is something to which we all might aspire.
 

Back when it was okay to be a white male, Stephen Collins Foster was a popular songwriter who wrote much of those childhood standards we all sang in school.

He lived from July 4, 1826 through January 13, 1864 and was known as "the father of American Music" for his tremdous impact on the musical arts and lyricism in particular.

I remember those days in Blackfoot, Idaho and Virginia Beach, Virginia as some of the most formative artistically infused periods of my life and Stephen C Foster was part of it all.

Now with the democrats and progressives trying to rewrite correct history with their customized versions you don't hear too much from him or his music anymore.

Those "parlor" and "minstrel" tunes have been supplanted with with R Kelly wanting to pee on you and other standards reflecting the stupidity of pop culture innundating the masses.

It's a wonder that any American culture remains amid the hip hop and other drivel called (very loosely) "music".

Stephen Foster Memorial Day is an observance in the United States celebrating his life and legacy despite the sad events of late with the uneducated masses and persons supposedly being "educated" likewise being dumb as dirt despite their superiority complex and 3 educational degrees.
 

With the advent of computers as a tool of office automation, keyboard skills have become much more important than they were as skills to be found in the old typing pools where manual and electric typewriters were used with paper instead of word processors and their ability for utilization in electronic media.

One of the best things I ever learned was typing because it opened doors to me which may have been closed otherwise. People weren't expecting to find a 300 pound bruiser with an accurate 80 words per minute going for them and indeed, the data entry operators of the day were not able to keep up with me.

Today is Typing Day. AKA International Typing Day and World Typing Day is a yearly observance originating in Malaysia and ocurring each January 8.

It is held under the auspices of the Speed Typing Contest Team from Junior Chamber International Mines and Team Typo Auto Corrector. It's purpose is to promte speed and accuracy in the production of written communications.

Though I am pretty much in the twilight years of my career, keyboards and typing have been there to see me through it all and I dare say that I would have existed as a laborer or some other blue collar pursuit had it not been for my typing ... which correlated directly to general keyboarding and subsequently cultivated programming as a career with further experience as things progressed.

It is due to the career advancement and indeed career provided that I am happy to celebrate Typing Day with my friends of Malaysia.

The decidedly left government of Chicago is telling upon that reality spawned of the leftist need for control and fundage with the 50,000 automobiles confiscated since 2011 and the resultant debt passed on to the consumer whom they call 'scofflaws' for failure to keep up with a "city sticker" road tax collection method.

So they seize the vehicles of persons then sell their property to some colluding private towing concern whereby the company gets the vehicle, the city gets some funds for the transaction but NONE of the sale price gets applied to the alleged debt causing the hardships among the taxpayers.

ONLY democrats and "so called" progressives would concoct such a thieving money grubbing scheme such as this with impunity. No one is doing anything for the taxpayers. Chicago just robs them blind because they can.

This is the LibTard reality set upon the people by the likes of that Obama legacy still running Chicago. This is what Obama has wrought in his so-called "home town".

Maybe someday those oppressed citizens of Chicago will take it upon themselves to reclaim their city and stop giving it to the Obama Machine. All they're after is everything you've got.

BOO !
 

Sometimes there isn't anything about which to write.

Today is one of those days when current events in the public sphere don't float my boat.

I could tell you all about my day with my mother but that too was routine ... necessary but routine and private moments shared with close family.

In those activities of daily living I am sometimes left to ponder while collecting my thoughts and often time those thoughts carry me places which aren't for public consumption.

So when all is said and done there sometimes aren't things going on I care to share here.

Call it privacy. Call it what you will ... but periodically there are things with which you simply may not be involved.

Try to get past it and have a nice day anyway.
 

I have met a few blind individuals in my lifetime. I have never had a visually impared friend or family member but I've often felt that this would not deter me from interacting with a person who cannot see.

I have encountered blind individuals traversing the sidewalks occasionally and even rendered assistance to one lady and her guide dog whom I found walking down the middle of the street.

I also notice braille control features in elevators, automatic teller machines, and even on some signage and "accessible" store shelves.

Today is World Braille Day. It is observed each year on January 4th which is the birthdate of Braille inventor, Louis Braille.

The day is a vehicle by which the contributions of Louis Braille in the literacy of the visually impared.

The National Federation of the Blind really holds Braille as that pivotal mechanism by which the blind may independently function in a manner which actively involves reading and writing methodology.