Do they truly end? I've never found the end of a rainbow, so I'm not at all sure. Until I see for myself, I'm not saying.
]]>Do they truly end? I've never found the end of a rainbow, so I'm not at all sure. Until I see for myself, I'm not saying.
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I spent the entire day with my daughter! We had a lovely time together. Isn't she a doll?
]]>Not really. I've never been one of those people who gets in the car just to go for a drive. I use vehicles solely as tools, in order to get from one place to another. I miss them sorely when I don't have ready access, though.
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Does a suburban pool count? Because I was in one today, playing with my niece and nephews, chatting with my brother and sister-in-law and parents. It was a lovely part of our Father's Day weekend celebration.
It has been a few years since I went out to anything that could be called wilderness, but I'd like to do so again, now that I'm getting stronger and my allergies have improved along with the rest of my health. I haven't been to a beach (other than the imported one at Lake Lanier) in almost 20 years, either. That's another thing I'd like to do.
I hope that I'm no longer disabled, that I'm fully functional, taking fewer medications and seeing fewer doctors. I'm working on that goal now. I plan to be working full time either for myself or in a position equivalent to the one I had back in 2000, when I last worked. I want to be attending school, unless I already have my degree. And finally, I hope to be living in a blue state or making serious progress towards getting there or even emigrating.
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2009-05-23: Morning Sky Greenery (rest) IMG_9780
I'm just going to count people I'm regularly in touch with offline who are not close kin, or things would be very complex, as there are lots of old friends and relatives on my Facebook friends list.
I've technically known Tate since high school, but we didn't get to know each other very well until this past year. So I suppose James, who I met via Sam back in 1998, wins the prize for being around the longest, poor guy.
1) When I give my word or my heart, I don't change my mind. I'm loyal to a fault.
2) I can learn just about anything I care to learn. Intelligence is useful.
3) I don't lie or misrepresent myself. I'm the same person online and offline. I practice radical honesty.
4) I inherited creativity from both of my grandmothers. I'm great with colors and am a talented stitcher.
5) I'm a survivor. I've experienced some terribly painful things starting in childhood and haven't allowed them to ruin my life.
Oprah, definitely. I was on her show about ten years ago to talk about internet safety and our family's experience with cyberstalking.
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I struggle with major depression (actually, treatment resistant depression), so it's difficult to find much that energizes me. However, really great conversation with just a few people does it quite well. The same goes for story games, or a really good tabletop roleplaying session that focuses on characters and plot rather than hack and slash.
Being around too many people drains me of energy, and I need alone time to recuperate. A nice soak in the bath with nobody else around, time with a good book, or time to enjoy some quiet music are all pleasures I use to help recover from being drained.
I'm definitely an introvert, as evidenced by what energizes me and what drains me. I used to be able to fake extroversion for short periods of time, but I'm not entirely sure that I could do that right now.
Not a full break, but I've had a hairline fracture in my left elbow and right forearm. I remember tripping and falling down steps at someone's wedding and cracking the elbow, but I no longer recall how I hurt the forearm.
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What sort of silly question is that? If a person dies, was he truly alive?
Yes, relationships based on true love sometimes end. That doesn't mean that they are failures, any more than lives that end are failures. The "happily ever after" thing is for fairy tales, and the idea of "one true love" should stay there as well.
It's clear that most people are only paying lip service to monogamy now by practicing serial monogamy, so I don't see why these outdated ideas hang on to cause misery for so many.
I have been in many relationships. I have loved each of those people. I don't consider any of those relationships failures, nor do I doubt that I loved those people simply because we are no longer together and don't feel the same way about each other now. I feel some affection, at the very least, towards most of them, and more for some of them. That doesn't bother me at all, as a polyamorous person. It doesn't set up any sort of conflict. I'm not going to act on those feelings, because there were valid reasons for the end of each relationship - but where there was deep love, there's always something left.
Camille Silverman - warp and weft
I would love to try weaving. I mean the great big loom sort of weaving, done with handmade fibers - maybe even with fibers I spun myself. The entire idea of weaving has always been so very attractive to me, and I adore all manner of fibers. The idea of having another way to play with colors and textures that would lead to big tapestries or rugs is so enticing that if I knew anyone with a loom they'd probably find it impossible to get rid of me.
Barring a big loom, I'd take even a lap loom, just something to get me going on it. I went to town making those potholders back in Girl Scouts!
Camille Silverman - warp and weft
I would love to try weaving. I mean the great big loom sort of weaving, done with handmade fibers - maybe even with fibers I spun myself. The entire idea of weaving has always been so very attractive to me, and I adore all manner of fibers. The idea of having another way to play with colors and textures that would lead to big tapestries or rugs is so enticing that if I knew anyone with a loom they'd probably find it impossible to get rid of me.
Barring a big loom, I'd take even a lap loom, just something to get me going on it. I went to town making those potholders back in Girl Scouts!
Not really. I do my best to be environmentally responsible every day, instead of saving it for one day of the year. I recycle, use mass transit, buy locally produced food as much as possible, and take other steps so that I really have a very small carbon footprint these days.
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Dreams are necessary to life~Anais Nin
Anais Nin's books come to mind right away, honestly. They're so intense and sensual that they've stuck in my mind, although I only read them once and my copies disappeared 20 years ago.
Camryn Manheim's autobiography was quite good, too. I don't read many of that genre (or haven't since childhood), so I don't have that many books to choose from here.
Absolutely! Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, but I don't usually take time for the great big meal that I remember fondly from Sunday mornings at my parents' house. Buttermilk biscuits, sawmill gravy, eggs, bacon, sausage, and grits are a "real breakfast" and that's just too heavy for the first meal of the day most of the time. They're great for supper, though, if there are enough people around to share!
]]>I'm pretty happy having coffee at home, but if I'm out and about, I'll swing by Starbucks with the rest of the mob. It's nice and predictable, and I'm admittedly not a coffee snob. I just want my raspberry-vanilla mocha with the whipped cream on top, and that counts as dessert treat as much as anything else.
]]>My ukulele! I wish I had a photo of her to post, but I don't. She's a travel tenor, which means that she's a bit bigger than the "standard" (soprano) ukulele most people are used to seeing, but also thinner than a normal tenor. She has a lovely voice, a little deeper than a soprano uke. She isn't a toy like the one on which I originally learned to play, either. And she's mine all mine!
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1) Moved.
2) Gotten rid of an amazing amount of old stuff.
3) Started exercising seriously for the first time in many years.
4) Lost 30 lbs.
5) Begun relearning to play the ukulele.
6) Reconnected with two old friends.
I'd like to go back to Mont St. Michel some day and spend more time there. I visited the place briefly during a trip while I was in high school, and a small part of one day simply wasn't nearly enough time to spend in the cloisters, much less the rest of the place. There's so much history there!
I would have been happy to wander up the winding road lined with shops at a leisurely pace had we not been on such a strict schedule, but as it was I was racing to make it to the top.
Of course, all visitors are on something of a schedule, because the tide covers the road to the island every day, and I'm not certain visitors are even allowed to stay past a certain time. It might be necessary to stay nearby and spend several days exploring, concentrating on a different bit of the island each time - the cloisters one day, different stages of the cathedral construction on different days, the shops another - to truly do the place justice.
No, I don't have a favorite work of art. My favorite artist is a young lady named Katie Armistead, and I couldn't possibly choose just one of her works as a favorite.
Other than her work, I have several favorite artists, from the well-known ones like Monet to lesser-known people such as Carl Lundgren and Lucy Synk. I've gone into more detail about them at http://technomom.com/sff/art.shtml .
I also enjoy Susan Seddon Boulet and Susan Van Camp's work, and Ansel Adam's photography among others. Some of the Raphaelites also appeal to me.
There's no such thing as a free pet, as any responsible pet owner knows! Beyond the costs of housing and feeding the animal, you have to provide for health care such as preventive medication for heartworms and other parasites (for dogs and cats, at least), regular vaccinations, and check-ups. That's with a healthy, young animal! If the animal gets ill or injured, of course, there are more expenses.
However, if I had an appropriate home and could afford all the concomitant expenses, I'd love to have a big dog. I've never stopped missing Karli, the Great Pyrenees cross who was stolen from our family. She had a lovely temperament, and I adore large dogs in general.
Last year is the first time I ever tried to track them, and I think it was 150+ according to GoodReads. I don't know how to see the number again, right off. That was probably about average.
I'll probably read less this year because I've been stitching more, as well as spending time on the ukulele. I'm also considering trying to get my piano skills back, which will take up more leisure time. So I've set a goal to read just 60 books this year (GoodReads is asking people to set goals for that now) and I'm 13% ahead at the moment. That's a fairly low goal, but I'd rather go over than not meet my goal.
My "to be read" pile is electronic these days, but it contains thousands of books and it just keeps growing, so I expect that I'll never run out of books to read.
Books and needlework items! My former partner and I used to dream about opening a combination book/stitching/gaming/coffee shop.
Of course, independent bookstores are nearly dead, and even Borders is dead now thanks to Amazon.
Little needlework shops have almost totally disappeared, because they can't compete with the prices Michael's and Joann Crafts can offer, or provide the same range of products that internet shops can provide.
I'd need a partner to run the gaming side, and I doubt there's a whole lot of profit for that. The one gaming shop I ever visited regularly was The Warroom in Norcross, and it is long gone. The people who ran that place certainly seemed to know what they were doing.
Coffee shops have to compete with Starbucks, but that part was less for itself than as an adjunct to the rest. They only seem to have any hope of success if they have some kind of special draw, like live music (which I love anyway)
We talked about combining our passions knowing that any one of those things wouldn't stand alone, and thinking that perhaps they could make it in combination.
We knew it was a dream, though - just a dream, nothing more. It would take a lot of capital to even start such a thing, much less keep it going. Then there was the little matter of me being 1) disabled, and not up to working even a part-time job, much less putting in the hours it takes to making a go of a small business; and 2) an introvert who doesn't deal with a lot of people well.
It's good to have dreams, though.
About a month ago, when I renewed my Gwinnett County library card so I could check out digital items from that library. Dekalb County's library doesn't have e-books yet, and they make up 99% of my book reading habits these days.
I adore libraries. I have good memories of them that go back to being 5 years old or so and visiting a Cobb County library branch that had a playground as well as a good children's section. Mom was willing to take us there pretty frequently over the next three years, since the books kept me busy and the playground kept my sister, and eventually my brother, busy.
One of the first things I do when moving to a new place is find the closest library and get a card. Any time I see a new library, I want to stop, even if I can't get a card. I'm just curious as to what THIS one will hold, what it's like inside. I adore the peace and quiet, the reverence for learning in libraries. They're lovely retreats, but most could use more comfy chairs.
That depends on the coffee shop and its clientele. If a particular shop isn't having a problem, why should it set a limit? As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
On the other hand, if a shop finds that customers can't find a place to sit because of certain people who habitually come in, buy one drink and then monopolize the tables for many hours, then yes, perhaps a limit would be reasonable. I would try to find other options, like instituting a minimum purchase per hour policy or something of that sort first. I'd also try to encourage the laptop users to share tables as much as possible. The tables aren't personal desks, obviously.
I don't ever purchase them - never have, can't imagine that I ever will. I agree with whoever called them "a tax on people who are bad at math." I read somewhere that in one of the recent lotteries that reached some huge award amount, each player had a better chance of being elected president of the United States than of winning. I don't know how valid that statistic was, honestly, but it was amusing.
Obviously, since I've never played, I've never won. I don't know anybody who has won more than a very small amount, maybe $50 - never enough to cover the cost of all the lottery tickets they've purchased over time.
I do use it! It's much cheaper than maintaining a car, when you consider the cost of insurance, gas, upkeep, etc. For those of us who don't care to drive (or whose medications remove driving as an option at times), public transit is a very important resource.
I only wish MARTA (Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit something) were extended to cover all of metro Atlanta. Right now, it is really only a viable option for reaching a small portion of the metro area.
No, I don't believe in fate at all. Fate implies some overall power or force in charge of the universe that overrides free will and human choices, and I completely reject that notion.
People's lives are affected by what happens to them, by the genetic lottery and the environment in which they are raised, and by how they respond to all of the above. Science is showing that more than we ever realized is predetermined by genetics and things like your grandparents' diets and health, but if that were the whole story Barack Obama wouldn't have grown up to be the President.
Internet I
1) The internet. I can hardly imagine what it would have been like to have ready access to so much information at an early age!
2) Ubiquitous connectivity. Even for those like my daughter who don't remember a time without the internet, being able to connect everywhere is a new thing that kids born now will take for granted.
3) Constant communication. These kids are unlikely to ever walk five miles to the nearest gas station if they run out of gas, because they'll have cell phones so they can call for help. There are fewer and fewer places without cell coverage, too.
As for disadvantages:
1) They'll never know a world without surveillance. They'll be monitored constantly from cradle to grave, officially or unofficially.
2) There are fewer and fewer wild places where they can go to get away and just be kids, running around without a phone ringing or an adult monitoring them in some way. I spent many hours in the woods as a child, but it wasn't safe for my daughter to do the same thing.
3) The same internet that brings them such marvelous information brings them into contact with more people as children than their grandparents ever knew, thus increasing the likelihood that they'll encounter predators. Without careful monitoring, they can all too easily become victims.
