An Introduction to My Posts and My Life

Isn't the probable futility of one's own existence a pain !

There is, fresco, a certain illusoriness to life; I grant you that. Life is like "a vapour in the desert which," as a poet once said, "the thirsty dreams to be water, but when he comes upon it he finds it to be mere illusion." But life is alot of many other things as well, things which now fill libraries with their many meanings---and one can't put them all, all the meanings that is, in little boxes like these in cyberspace.-Ron

Wrong answer !

Nobody but you is likely to be interested in your life, and your overt attempt at self publicity both drives potential "customers" away, and suggests that you neurotically suspect and fear its ultimate insignificance.

Good morning, ron. Keep posting. I will keep reading.

Might I also add to Ed's post, and with a small add-on. I think wed like to hear more of your thoughts, not your pedigree.

I have several friends who are writers for newspapers or engage in longer work productions. I like to hear their ideas and views fo the world around us. We have several writers and (folks who should be writers0 on A2K. I aint one of them but Edgar Blythe is and I love to hear the talk and cross talk between or among a bunch of you, often amazing what comes up.
SO, dont just recite, join in, most of us are harmless and those that arent, are too geographically far apart to be of any consequence.

Ron may indeed have something interesting to say, but obsessively hitting us over the head with his c.v. is unlikely to help him get it across.

Since he has urged us to visit his website, my impression is that it is an outlet vehicle for Ron to hyperactively inflict some aspects of his bi-polar disorder on anybody who cares to listen to him. I suggest he contrast that egocentric effort with the tangible achievements of the British broadcaster and author Stephen Fry (another sufferer) whose actual talents have been recognized and applauded by the general public.

I'll take that final quote, fresco, as a jump off point: "Until a man uncovers himself he cannot see." At my website I have uncovered myself just about to the point of nudity and, for those who are interested you can access my site at: Edit [Moderator]: Link removed or Edit [Moderator]: Link removed

PS Fry has bipolar disorder II and I have bipolar disorder I----and I'm not here to compete with Fry, a man of fame and wealth, and considerable talent which I have come to enjoy over many years. I am I and he is he. We all have our unique signature in life and some come to enjoy our style and some don't.
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TOTAL INTERNET SITE/ENTRIES

On 1 March 2010 any reader doing some googling will find literally 1000s of entries when they type Ron Price: poetry, history, literature, bipolar disorder, Bahá'í or Ron Price followed by literally dozens of other subjects, topics and words like: media, popular culture, religion, Christianity, philosophy, sociology, psychology, anthropology, history, media studies, interviews, writing, inter alia. It was equally obvious that, with a little digging or a lot, depending on one’s search skills, that there were millions of people who came across my writing and read it in varying degrees. After 10 years of posting I also have millions of readers more than I could ever have imagined before the internet got going.

There is no question that the sites at which I have registered and at which I post my writing as well as the entries on the internet at google, among a host of other search engines, at which I respond to the writing of others constitutes a major web site presence. Of course, ‘major’ is a relative term on the WWW with its 280,000,000 sites and 4.6 billion news, topics, subjects and information items as of 1 March 2010. My presence is really a dot on the cyberspace landscape.

My entries get mixed in with some 3000 other Ron Prices, yes, 3000!! which I began to itemize but stopped after listing over 400 RonPrices, some men of fame and fortune and others of notoriety and varying types of discomfiture. If I go to the USA internet site: How Many of Me.com, I will find over 1000 Ron Price’s and Ronald Price’s. If I go to a site with the same name in the UK, I get over 300 Ron Prices. If I go to: ZoomInfo Business People, I get some 250 Ron Price's. Readers looking for my posts will also find that when they type the word Price into their search engine with whatever other words they enter, will get sub-sites having to do with prices and money. A multitude of other sites having similar subject matter to the subject matter that I post; for example, Baha’i, poetry, literature, psychology, sociology, history, inter alia, get mixed in with mine.

This makes the enumeration, the collection, the addition, of all my entries on the internet a complex, tedious and undesirable exercise after the first few hundred that any interested reader can find and list. This intermixing of my entries/sites with those of others has the effect of masking my presence somewhat. My guesstimation, though, of total entries on the internet is: 30,000 sites and sub-sites and, as I say, millions of readers.

wait a minit Ron. You joined US, not the otherwar round.Im not going to seasrch out stuff about every participant on this forum. We gradually get to know each others strengths and weaknesses by communication. Im going to visit your other thread for I see youve responded to a question you asked and to which I responded several weeks ago.
It sometimes gets to be like playing chess by snail mail around here but sometimes the subject is worth the wait. I, for one, dont get all credibility conscious about all of us (we all come with different backgrounds and training,) SOme of us just jump in an debate. If you have something you think is really critical to what you want to say,put it in your profile , thats what that feature is for.

It has been 2 years since I posted my introduction, so I'll update it here.-Ron
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EMPLOYMENT-SOCIAL-ROLE POSITIONS: 1943-2014

2010-2014-Retired and on a pension in George Town, Tasmania
1999-2009-Writer & Author, Poet & Publisher, Editor & Researcher. Retired Teacher & Lecturer, Tutor & Adult Educator, Taxi-Driver & Ice-Cream Salesman, George Town Tasmania Australia
2002-2005-Program Presenter City Park Radio Launceston
1999-2004-Tutor &/or President George Town School for Seniors Inc
---ABOVE THIS LINE ARE MY YEARS IN RETIREMENT---------
1988-1999 -Lecturer in General Studies & Human Services West Australian Department of Training
1986-1987 -Acting Lecturer in Management Studies & Co-ordinator of Further Education Unit at Hedland College in South Hedland WA
1982-1985 -Adult Educator Open College of Tafe Katherine NT
1981 -Maintenance Scheduler Renison Bell Zeehan Tasmania
1980-Unemployed due to illness and recovery
1979-Editor External Studies Unit Tasmanian CAE; Youth Worker Resource Centre Association; Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour Tasmanian CAE; Radio Journalist ABC---all in Launceston Tasmania
1976-1978 -Lecturer in Social Sciences & Humanities Ballarat CAE Ballarat, Victoria
1975 - Lecturer in Behavioural Studies Whitehorse Technical College, Box Hill Victoria
1974 -Senior Tutor in Education Studies Tasmanian CAE Launceston, Tasmania
1972-1973 -High School Teacher South Australian Education Dept.
1971-Primary School Teacher Whyalla South Australia
----ABOVE THIS LINE ARE MY YEARS IN AUSTRALIA---- CANADA----BELOW----
1969-1971 Primary School Teacher Prince Edward County Board of Education Picton Ontario Canada
1969-Systems Analyst Bad Boy Co Ltd Toronto Ontario
1967-68 -Community Teacher Department of Indian Affairs & Northern Development Frobisher Bay NWT Canada
1959-67 -Summer jobs-1 to 4 months each- from grade 10 to end of university
1949-1967 - Attended 2 primary schools, 2 high schools and 2 universities in Canada: McMaster Uni-1963-1966, Windsor Teachers’ College-1966/7
1944-1963 -Childhood(1944-57) and adolescence(1957-63) in and around Hamilton Ontario
1943 to 1944-Conception in October 1943 to birth in July 1944 in Hamilton Ontario

2. SOME SOCIO-BIO-DATA TO 2013

I have been married twice for a total of 46 years. My second wife is a Tasmanian, aged 67. We’ve had one child: age 36. I have two step-children: ages: 47 and 42, three step-grandchildren, ages 19, 17 and 3, as well as one grandchild age 2. All of the above applies in October 2013. I am 69, am a Canadian who moved to Australia in 1971 and have written several books--all available on the internet.

I retired from full-time teaching in 1999, part-time teaching in 2003 and volunteer teaching/work in 2005 after 32 years in classrooms as a teacher and another 18 as a student. In addition, I have been a member of the Baha’i Faith for 53 years. Bio-data: 6ft, 235 lbs, eyes-brown/hair-grey, Caucasian.

My website is found at: Edit [Moderator]: Link removed You can also go to any search engine and type: Ron Price followed by any one of a number of words in addition to: poetry, forums, religion, literature, history, bipolar disorder, psychology, sociology, philosophy, inter alia, to access my writing________________________

if youd post more often you wouldn't have to keep introducing yourself and, incidentally, I believe that, with your kind of obsessive reintroductions, you drive possible correspondents away.
What do you wish to talk about? I am always interested in folks from places distant.
Do you garden? cook? sail? hunt moa fossils?

Isnt it amazing that the Moa is more related to the tinamu rather than emus or cassowaries?
DNA is amazing at typing common ancestors and descendent species

Thank you farmerman for your honesty, your frankness. I'll give you a link to my website where you can indulge yourself on 100s of my interests and activities: Edit [Moderator]: Link removed ....I won't have to reinvent the wheel. This website has enough stuff about my interests and activities to keep you reading for years.-Ron

I will rarely visit folks blogs since"TO BLOG" is the infinitive form of BLOGGUS which is usually an adjectival form meaning "SALES PITCH"

I like to engage in "at the moment" conversations that are brought up by our correspondents. SOme r great and some r not so much.
I saw your contributions to the DVD thread about CAPT PHILLIPS. A really good afternoon would be to get the DVD of that and the Robt Redford movie ALL IS LOST. (COURSE , neither movie is yet available to the DVD market)

I could spend all my time now writing emails: (i) short and pithy, a line or two; (ii) of medium length, say, a paragraph or two, and (iii) long pieces of a page or more. But, since I have other literary interests, since I have reinvented myself in recent years---and am now a writer and author, poet and publisher, editor and researcher, online blogger and journalist, reader and scholar, I try to keep that form of communication, emails and letters, to an absolute minimum. If old friends wonder why I do not send them the short and snappy emails that I used to send to them at their email address, or at their Facebook page, or at some other internet site, this is the reason. It is a reason I elaborate on in some detail below. This explanation is, in part at least, part of the general articulation of my business plan, of the literary industry, of my cyberspace MO, that has come to occupy my leisure-time, my retirement years, as I head to the age of 70 in less than 7 months--on 23 July 2014.
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Anyone wanting to read about the general picture of the goings-on in my life, its activities and engagements, as well as the lives of those central people in my family's inner circle--some of the significant others as they say in psychology--can read this general picture in the 4 annual messages which I now have in cyberspace: one for 2011-2012, one for 2012-2013, one for 2013-2014, and one for 2014-15. My 2013-2014 annual email is now in its third edition. Today is 10 January 2014, as I update this part of my website. Winter in the northern hemisphere, and summer in the southern half of the planet began three weeks ago. For many in Australia who see the first of the month, in this case the first of December, as the beginning of the new summer season, summer began 7 weeks ago. My four annual emails received more than 5000 hits by 1 June 2013, more than seven months ago, and more than I had ever anticipated. On 1 June 2013 I stopped counting the number of those who clicked on my annual emails.
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The world has had, and now has, some fine essayists. I am not in the same league as the finest, but they set the bar for me. An essay is an experiment, not a credo. It is something made up in response to an excited imagination; it is a short story told in the form of an argument or a history or even, once in a very great while, an illumination. These are not my words, but the words of Cynthia Ozick, one of the many fine essayists whom I have come to read in these years of my retirement without 60 to 70 hours a week of job, family and community responsibilities breathing down my neck. I don't mean to imply that job, family and community were not good for me. I would not want to have missed that half century of wall-to-wall people, say, 1949 to 1999, for the world. But now that those 5 decades are gone another me has emerged and is emerging.

There are many writers capable of creating those glittering and bewitching contraptions, pieces of prose, known as essays. It has taken me many years to come up with a short list of the best, at least the best from my point of view, of the myriad people who now write, and who once wrote essays. This is only one literary form; the world is now the home of a pantheon of literary forms which will keep me happily occupied until the roll is called-up to the proverbial "yonder."

I gravitate toward written speech wherein description is kept to a minimum and actions describe the scenes. Ive always been a fan of the essays of guys like Vern Klinkendorf or several other of the "CAtskill" writers.
Reading an essay involves investment of time to understand your point of view. My interests are fairly well focused and Ive been described as someone who's an inch wide and three miles deep. Consequently, A2k has been good for me as a "widening" of my interests. Ive found that, the real art in communication is the developing the art of "Less is more".
Weve got a few really good writers herein who are able to say so much with relatively little word volume. We also have several writers who, when you ask them for the time, will tell you how to make a watch. Im afraid I may lean that way and, because I get somewhat prolix, I find my writing can be non-compelling in areas that aren't my main research areas.
I often look at some of my past posts and compare them to the really good writers herein. They make it feel like theyre taking you on a stroll. Since Im not fully retired and have to write reports and site surveys, and occasional papers, I am trying to develop a style that is no longer purely academic or applied engineering in tone . Im seeking the "Less is more" route, perhaps youd wish to join?

We are each in our own timeline, farmerman. Read what you like/want of my pieces and leave the rest. I have literally millions of readers now in cyberspace and I try not to write to them all or I'd go crazy. The following is my main reading interest at the moment.-Ron
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The world has had, and now has, some fine essayists. I am not in the same league as the finest, but they set the bar for me. An essay is an experiment, not a credo. It is something made up in response to an excited imagination; it is a short story told in the form of an argument or a history or even, once in a very great while, an illumination. These are not my words, but the words of Cynthia Ozick, one of the many fine essayists whom I have come to read in these years of my retirement without 60 to 70 hours a week of job, family and community responsibilities breathing down my neck. I don't mean to imply that job, family and community were not good for me. I would not want to have missed that half century of wall-to-wall people, say, 1949 to 1999, for the world. But now that those 5 decades are gone another me has emerged and is emerging.

There are many writers capable of creating those glittering and bewitching contraptions, pieces of prose, known as essays. It has taken me many years to come up with a short list of the best, at least the best from my point of view, of the myriad people who now write, and who once wrote essays. This is only one literary form; the world is now the home of a pantheon of literary forms which will keep me happily occupied until the roll is called-up to the proverbial "yonder." I wish you well, farmerman, in working out your MO for reading and writing to others.-Ron

Aren't you glad you asked !

There is a definite Ph.D thesis lurking here for someone wishing to investigate the use of public forums and blogs for self valedictory psychological catharsis. Communication with "others" does not seem a requirement for that operation...on the contrary, it seems to be an impediment !

Shud that be public fora ????