taking a sabbatical....

wow, hard to believe that I have not blogged in a month!
I have been training new employees, which entails traveling quite a bit. My creativity gets funneled into training activities and the writing of instructions.  So, while I still have moments of inspiration, I am so focused on training that other things do not get done.  And, on the weekends, I have been focused on seeing and doing things here -in the area where we are working.  In this case it is New England, where, in the past, I have been 'feet on the ground' before, but not as a tourist.  So, I have been taking this opportunity to be a part-time tourist on the weekends.  I have not actively sought the most popular of tourist attractions, but that is just me! I have never really followed the crowd, but all my life I have done my "own thing", and that is what my tourism on this trip has been.
If you are my friend on Facebook, and you have paid attention to the photos I have shared, then you already know that I have been to the Lizzie Borden Home and Museum in Fall River Massachusetts.  I have been to Providence, Rhode Island --thusly eliminating from my list the last remaining U.S. state East of the Mississippi that I had not visited.  (There are only 8 U.S. states that I have yet to visit.)  I have added to my list of major airports Logan Airport in Boston, and was there on the day of the fuel tank fire, which extended my already long day by another hour (and I am grateful that was the length of the delay!).  Later I spent 4 days in Kennebunk, Maine and the surrounding area, including a couple of hours at the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge walking in the woods.  I ate wonderfully delicious gluten free pizza at Duffy's Tavern, not once but 2 days in a row, with wonderful Omission gluten free beer.  I drove the Ocean Avenue route at Kennebunkport, and went out to Twin Lighthouses state park near Portland, Maine.
The following weekend I headed down to Gloucester, Massachusetts to see the Fisherman's Memorial park, and see the names of those lost at sea, including the crew of the Andrea Gail (subject of the film The Perfect Storm), found The Crow's Nest, and had a wonderful gluten free breakfast at Mamie's Kitchen on Pleasant Street in Gloucester.  Then, intending to follow roads along the coast, I happened upon Hammond "Castle" museum, which was the home of an interesting, eccentric named John Hammond, Jr. who is considered the "father" of radio control.  From there I headed over to Marblehead Neck, and then wandered around a bit on the way back to my hotel. (Walmarts are few and far between in this area!)
That sums up my tourist activity for September 2013.

So, that's what i have been up to instead of creative blogging.

16 years ago tonight (08-31-2013)

It has been 16 years since that awful night.  Whatever program I was watching that evening had ended.  I was channel surfing, planning on a brief view of what was on the television that evening, and then turning off the television for the night.  I happened to stop on CNN, which was my main news source at that time.  It was clear that they were on one topic and not the usual fare either.  It was shocking to hear that Princess Diana had been in an horrific automobile accident and was in critical condition in a Paris hospital.
The television stayed on.  We waited for updates of Diana's condition.  Previously there had been such extreme oversaturation of Diana news that we had stopped paying attention to all of it.  Now we were praying for her.

She was a lovely young woman pulled, unwitting, into the public spotlight.  Convinced to join in an archaic ritual of a hierarchical 'official' marriage to a royal.  The "last" princess in our lifetime.  Poor innocent, led into a very public life and having to deal with personal struggles privately.  Not an ideal situation for anyone.  I say shame on the 'royal' family for what they put the poor woman through! and good for Diana for seeing that she needed to find her own way in the world.

Now, we waited.  Late into the night word finally came: she had not survived the crash, died at the scene.  How awful!! Spellbound by the news, we remained in front of our television all night long, finally turning it off at around 6:00am.  Extremely saddened.

The thing, for me personally, was that she was a contemporary of mine -- near to my own age.  That was what really caused her death to affect me deeply.  I was sad for many, many days after her terrible passing.
And now, 16 years later, I remember that night with sadness.  Rest In Peace Princess, Rest In Peace.

There's a new Doctor (Who) in town....#12

Well, BBC has finally announced the identity of the actor slated to play the twelfth incarnation of Doctor Who.  His name is Peter Capaldi, and this is not his start in the Doctor Who series.  Peter Capaldi was Caecilius in the 2008 episode The Fires of Pompeii.  And true fans of anything remotely related to The Doctor will also remember him as John Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth.  Peter Capaldi's acting credits go back as far as 1982, according to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

The thing that gripes me today is that people are calling Peter Capaldi "too old" for the role of Doctor Who.  (Peter Capaldi was born in 1958.)  This is patently ridiculous, because there is a long history to the Dr. Who franchise, 50 years worth of Dr. Who history.... The 3rd Doctor, Jon Pertwee was in his 50's and the 1st Doctor, William Hartnell in his 60's.  These are beloved portrayers of Doctor Who.  So you sissy, sassy, young punks who are calling people old may just be too young to even watch Doctor Who.  ;-)  and YES that is a poke at you young whippersnappers.

Who are you calling "old"?  Think about who might call you old!  Need I remind you: Doctor Who himself is over 900 years old!!

What I am ultimately saying is that age is only a number.  It does not need to be a state of mind, or to control your life or behaviour.  Mr. Capaldi has an impressive body of work coming into this role.  If he has energy and stamina he could well be an impressive Doctor Who.

I am excited to about the 12th Doctor, cannot wait for the episodes to be aired.  I love television programs that allow for an interchangeable cast, or, as in this instance, replacement actors.  But replacement actors who step up and take over the role they are cast, make it all their own, and take us to new places we never imagined possible.

That is the total and final essence of The Doctor -- he always takes us to a new place we never imagined.

The Magic Raincoat....

It’s old. I have had the magic raincoat for at least 20 years.  It was a few years before I found out that it was magic.  The magic works about 97% of the time.  Here is how it works:

I bring the raincoat with me, I unfold it, carry it wherever I go.  If it does rain, it does not rain on me, when I am outdoors.  It’s like this: it’s raining when I leave for work, no problem, attached garage, so I don’t get rained on.  Drive to work, raincoat unfolded on the passenger seat, the rain stops when I arrive at work and prepare to exit the car.  It rains later, when I am inside the building working.  Lunchtime?  I put on the raincoat and it’s not raining while I go to lunch, or when I return and walk from car to building.  5 O’clock whistle blows?  The rain stops before I exit the building, and starts again after I am in the car and driving.  Home at last, it’s not raining at all here…..

Seriously, I have had many days like this! The key is that I must have the raincoat and it must be unfolded.   I had a co-worker, Kirby D., and if it would start to rain after we were in the office, Kirby would turn around slowly and ask me, “did you bring it?”  And I would say, “Yes, Kirby, I have it unfolded.”   And he would smile and turn back to his desk.  I think he really believed in the magic raincoat, and it never failed me as long I worked with Kirby D. 

Not everyone believes me, or they just don’t want to admit that it works.  The magic raincoat.  It’s a pale greenish hue, made of polyvinyl chloride (pvc), with nylon and polyester.  It has a nice roomy hood with a visor, so it keeps the rain off my glasses –on the rare occasion that I do get rained on while wearing the magic raincoat.  I think it cost around $30.  When  I got it I liked it so much that I bought another one and my mother got one too.  Later, when I wanted another color I got a third magic raincoat.  The funny thing is that I didn’t realize that it was a magic raincoat until I owned all three of them.  And they are all magic.  I carry one more than the others, but I have carried each of the three raincoats and they really all do the magic trick, 97% of the time.

Now, there are times when I look out the window, at the rain coming down, and I know it’s just not going to be a day that I do not get rained on.  I can accept that,… 3% of the time!!  What really vexes me is that, if I carry the magic raincoat in to the office, on a day that rain is predicted  and then run an errand without the magic raincoat, because maybe the sun was shining when I walked out, I get rained on!!  Ah, but that is how I know that it is truly a magic raincoat!, if only I had carried with me on the errand, I could have stayed dry.

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.  J

 

I am Farscape: definition of Scape (as in "A Scape of Scapers")

Definition:
Scape: A Scape of Scapers. To be a fan of Farscape. To be Farscape.

Scaper: A person who has gathered with other Farscape fans, either to attend an Official Farscape Convention, OR to view episodes of the television program known as Farscape.

A Scape is more than 2 Scapers.

Also:
Fans of Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Anthony Simcoe, Virginia Hey, Jonathan Hardy, Lani Tupu, Gigi Edgeley, Wayne Pygram, Paul Goddard, David Franklin, Rebecca Riggs, Francesca Buller, Raelee Hill, Tammy Macintosh, Kent McCord, Melissa Jaffer, etc….

A Scaper is a person who has been "irreversibly contaminated". 
A Scaper knows one truth about every living being:  You Can Be More.


We are a Scape of Scapers. We are unique in the universe. We must have our own designation.


Definition:
to Scape: showing episodes of Farscape to 'newbies', to cause others to be irreversibly contaminated.




(Farscape is owned by the Henson Company.)


below is an excerpt from a FB post, written by Scaper A.A.:
".. The Creation Entertainment/Burbank/L.A. experiences were nothing short of AMAZING and even though a lot of us never really talked or hung out - there was that feeling of family that I've never experienced anywhere...
So many people from so many different walks of life - and we all embraced each other unconditionally - all for the love of the TV show that brought us all together...
And it was SO much more than a TV show - it was more like we were all living the adventure of Moya's cast & crew...
... And then add in the way that we and the cast embraced each other - that created an experience that will resonate with us if we only attended one or all of the conventions!
I'm sure i'm not alone in saying that the 'FarScape Experience' was and still is a life changing & enriching experience that I am truly grateful that I am part of!
I've truly been blessed with 2 wonderful families! My biological one and my FarScape Family!
I hope we can all meet up again - and as I said at the last convention - 'Til We Scape Again!" .."              .....(printed with permission from the author 07/03/2013)

black hole,..worm hole,... singularity..... things disappear so whatever...

This blog.

I have thought about a generic blog of things I think up for a while now.

The biggest holdup, the largest blockade for me is that I come up with my best ideas while driving in a car alone.  Yes, I do have a micro-recorder someplace –God only knows where it is, because I have a black hole in my dwelling.  Whether I live in a house or an apartment or even out of a suitcase… things have a way of disappearing without really being gone.  I mean I find everything eventually.

I do not generally lose articles of clothing, especially socks or gloves.  I have pairs of gloves mated up that I have owned for literally decades!  But here’s another story:  When I lived in McHenry, Illinois I had occasion to make a pair of gloves fingerless –that is to say I purchased a nice pair of knit gloves for the express purpose of cutting the ends off of the fingers to keep my hands warm at my data entry job. (That building was cold inside in the winter-time!)  Later I just stuck those gloves in my home office on a shelf.  A few years later, that room was re-purposed and there was only one glove.  I have no idea how the two gloves got separated-not a clue!  Well, we moved to a new house in Crystal Lake, Illinois, where I lived for 9.7 years, never mated up those two gloves, and only ever saw one of them at a time.  At the end of that 9.7 years I moved into an apartment in Rockford, Illinois and what do you know?  About 2 years after moving into the apartment I finally got that pair of gloves back together again!  And they are folded together one over the other in an attempt to keep them together for future use.

The gloves aside I am a very clever magician, but only when it comes to making things disappear!  There is a long list of missing items at my house.  The latest addition to that list is the AC charger cord and also the car charger cord for my personal cell phone.  I am so very clever that I hid those two items, and hid them so well that I have not been able to find them at all.  In fact, I suspect that I turned them in at work with other ‘obsolete’ phone chargers and cord.  Regardless of where the phone charges are now I had to purchase a new cell phone, because the one with the missing cords was so old that I cannot replace those charger cords –they no longer make those type of connectors on newer phones.  And apparently I was only a few weeks too late in trying to make such a purchase.  Because I am so very clever at hiding things that no one would want to steal in the first place!

But I love my black hole. I love it because so often what gets sucked down that black hole magically reappears at some later date….. or is that a wormhole?

 

deep thoughts as therapy, and I don't care.....

Deep Thaw-ts?  Huh?

I know, I know, you are wondering what on earth…..  Well, when I thought of it, on a very cold January afternoon, it really amused me.  And I have not thought of a better name for this blog.  It is about defrosting the old brain cells.  I have not been very creative in far too long.  It used to be that I would stop the car on the side of the road to jot down an idea or a poem.  Gosh that was a really long time ago, like many more years than I will admit to.  In my own, humble opinion I have used a lot of creativity at work on various projects (at various jobs) down through the years.  I just have not been personally creative.  So, it’s time to thaw out the brain cells, deep in the brain, where my creativity resides and nurture them and keep them warm, and use them! 

 

I may have to start pulling over on the roadside and write down my ideas so that I can expound here, hopefully to a following…..  if my ways of thinking do not offend…..  I have strong opinions, mostly about the way people behave….    stupid things I see people do…  I once saw a bumper sticker that stated: “stupidity should be painful”  -I could not agree more,.. especially when I do something stupid, and I say to myself “that should have hurt more, so I won’t do it ever again.”  So, do not be offended if I relate events that you, yourself may have been a party to….  It’s not you, it’s me (just like the old cliché),… I just do not suffer fools gladly.)  [Here I refer you to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffer_fools_gladly]

So, occasionally, I will describe some bad or stupid behavior, and some of you probably won’t like it.  I am what I am (like Popeye used to say), and I don't really give a fig if other people don’t like it.

In closing I would only explain that I find it therapeutic to vent, and doing so in writing frees me of the angst and anger at the ridiculous things I am often witness to.