I Think...

I'm blogged out. I may need to go in a different direction. Let me think about it.

We Are (Amost) Living In A Paperless World

but I am a paper loving girl.
-Me

This morning I read this article by Nicholas Ciarelli over at The Daily Beast in which he praises living the digital life and breaking free from the "oppressive world of books, magazines, newspapers, business cards, store receipts, and old toaster instruction manuals...

Humm, I've never felt oppressed by books since reading is a tactile experience as well as a mental one. I prefer the feel of the leaves of a book against my fingers as I turn the pages to the hard plastic of a Kindle or a nook. I will give him the inconvenience of keeping and finding appliance manuals when you need them. Having them online at the manufacturer's website does make it easier. But books? Once you buy them they are yours to read again, lend to a friend, or sell. Try that with a e-book.

Mr. Ciarelli's also points out that with a Kindle or a nook, why, you will never be caught without reading material while standing in line ever again! Excuse me, hasn't he ever heard of paperback books or magazines? The advantage to those forms of information storage is that you never have to worry about your battery juice running out or about software viruses. Plus, when was the last time you broke a book by dropping it?

The main reason for Mr. Ciarelli's enthusiasm for a digital world is control.

With a paperless life, you have a greater ability to measure how you consume media, such as in these charts, which depict the pace at which different readers enjoyed a short story. Most people do not imagine ever wanting to chronicle something like this—after all, none of this measurement is possible with printed material.

He goes on to say that this may not be seen as useful (I agree), but, hey, look how useful keeping track of your financial spending online is right now. I fail to see the connection. Of course control works both ways and Mr. Ciarelli notes that if you can monitor your reading preferences so can others.

By the same token, if you can more easily measure your media consumption, then others can as well. Consider the possibilities: Novelists could identify the point at which people are most likely to abandon their books, and could then release modified versions with those parts re-written. Authors could even release different versions of their books to different customers and conduct experiments to see which editions are the most effective, testing out different plotlines, characters, or endings.

Do those words read as frightening to you as they to to me. Why stop there, we could re-write the boring parts out of all those dull classics while we are at it. I was wrong, we aren't almost living in a paperless world, we are almost living in a Walmart world where quality is less important than making a buck.

What are your thoughts on this? Is a paperless world a good idea? Books or e-reader? Online banking or not? Online newspaper or not? Paper or electronic storage of records? Why or why not?

Want To Know What It Has Been Like Here For The Last Two Days?

Trying to remember what my daddy said
Before too much time took away his head
He said we're going back and I'll show you what I'm talking about
Going back to Cypress River, back to the old farmhouse

(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
(Trying to remember what Daddy said)
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)

I tried to tell the people but they never heard a word I say
They say there's nothing out there but wheat fields anyway
Just a farmer's wife hanging laundry in her back yard
Out on the prairie where the winds blow long and hard

(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
(Trying to remember what Daddy said)
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)

Late at night, lights dancing in the northern sky
Like the Indian spirits trying to show me how to fly
You can see into the future but it may be a mirage
Like a new car sitting there in your old garage

(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
(Trying to remember what Daddy said)

There's a place on the prairie where evil and goodness play
Daddy told me all about it but I don't remember what he said
It might be afternoon and it might be the dead of night
But you'll know when you see it 'cause it sure is a hell of a sight

(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
Prairie wind blowing through my head
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
Trying to remember what Daddy said

(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
Before too much time took away his head
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
He said we're going back and I'll show you what I'm talking about

(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
Going back to Cypress River, back to the old farmhouse
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)

(Prairie wind blowing through my head)
(Prairie wind blowing through my head)...
-Neil Young

Doggie Update

Little Sally Pumpkinhead (about 2 months old) playing with Duke last November.



Little Sally Pumkinhead (about 5 months old) playing with Duke today.

Thrift Shop Finds

(Click on photo to enlarge)

I love old costume jewelry.


Note (1/22): I forget to mention that the piece on the right between the two bracelets is not a pin. At first I thought it was an earring since it has a clasp on the back but it is too big. An older gentleman who was there when I was looking at it told me it is an old fashion shoe clip.

Library Update

I just finished cataloging all the video cassettes, audio book cassettes, audio book CDs, and our DVD collection. The only thing left to do are the adult fiction paperbacks. I have been doing this tedious work for so long that shoving a pencil in my eye right now would be less painful. I am so glad we are near the end.

FYI- Did You Get A Gift Card You Know You Won't Use For Christmas or Hannah?

Don't throw it into a drawer. You can go online and:

--Get cash for it at Gift Card Buyback.

- Get cash for it, exchange it for Amazon.com credit, or donate it to a charity that can redeem it at Plastic Jungle,

-Use it to pay a bill at Giftcards.com.

Martin Luther King Day

Friday I was in the coffee shop when a local man came in. He sat down and when the waitress came over to take his order he said the following, "Are you open Monday on Martin Luther King Day and, if so, are you serving coon coffee?"
Both then proceeded to laugh.

This story shows that we haven't moved that far from a time when this kind of insidious hatred got Doctor King killed for being an uppity negro. In fact, we haven't moved that far at all.

Love Is All We Need

Love, Love, Love.
Love, Love, Love.
Love, Love, Love.

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game.
It's easy.

Nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
(Love, Love, Love.)
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
(Love, Love, Love.)
It's easy.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

Nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

All you need is love
(All together, now!)
All you need is love.
(Everybody!)
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

Love is all you need
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
Love is all you need (love is all you need).
-All You Need Is Love, Lennon and McCartney

FYI- I Won A Major Award!*

I won a t-shirt this week in the Basket of Kisses Mad Men rhyming couplet contest. This is my wining entry:

A woman lives in Ossining , she’s feeling so morose,
Her husband works in Gotham town, she knows he’s just a ghost.

I also sent in these three:

1.
“What do women want?”, Don Draper asks, he does not know at all
“The answer’s found,” Bert Cooper thinks, “up on my office wall.”

2.
A man is falling through the air, his anguish gone at last
Is he trying to kill himself or kill his fear-fueled past?

3.
Joan and Peggy want success, both have magic coins
Peggy’s coin is her quick brain; Joanie’s coin, her loins


* A Christmas Story House

Life Is Getting In the Way Of Blogging This Week

See you soon.

It's Just Another Manic Monday

Six o'clock already
I was just in the middle of a dream
I was kissin' Valentino
By a crystal blue Italian stream
But I can't be late
'Cause then I guess I just won't get paid
These are the days
When you wish your bed was already made

It's just another manic Monday
I wish it was Sunday
'Cause that's my fun day
My, "I don't have to run" day
It's just another manic Monday

Have to catch an early train
Got to be to work by nine
And if I had an air-o-plane
I still couldn't make it on time
'Cause it takes me so long
Just to figure out what I'm gonna wear
Blame it on the train
But the boss is already there

It's just another manic Monday
I wish it was Sunday
'Cause that's my fun day
"I don't have to run" day
It's just another manic Monday

Of all of the nights
Why did my lover have to pick last night
To get down
Doesn't it matter
That I have to feed the both of us
Employment's down
He tells me in his bedroom voice
"C'mon honey, let's go make some noise"
Time, it goes so fast
(When you're having fun)

It's just another manic Monday
I wish it was Sunday
That's my fun day
I don't have to run" day
It's just another manic Monday

I wish it was Sunday
'Cause that's my fun day
It's just another manic Monday
-The Bangles, song written by Prince.

My Life In Six Words

Child hostage, parents life, still escaping.
-Six-word Memoirs.

Happy Birthday!

Two important birthdays today, my sister and Elvis. It is Elvis' 75th and it is my sister's...well, that's none of your business.

Happy Birthday, little sister!



Little sister, don’t you
Little sister, don’t you
Little sister, don’t you kiss me once or twice
Then say it’s very nice
And then you run

Little sister, don’t you
Do what your big sister done

Well, I dated your big sister
And I took her to a show
I went for some candy
Along came Jim Dandy
And they snuck right out of the door

Little sister, don’t you
Little sister, don’t you
Little sister, don’t you kiss me once or twice
Then say it’s very nice
And then you run

Little sister, don’t you
Do what your big sister done

Ev’ry time I see your sister
Well she’s got somebody new
She’s mean and she’s evil
Like that little old boll weevil
Guess I’ll try my luck with you

Little sister, don’t you
Little sister, don’t you
Little sister, don’t you kiss me once or twice
Then say it’s very nice
And then you run

Little sister, don’t you
Do what your big sister done

Well, I used to pull your pigtails
And pinch your turned-up nose
But you been a growin’
And baby, it’s been showin’
From your head down to your toes

Little sister, don’t you
Little sister, don’t you
Little sister, don’t you kiss me once or twice
Then say it’s very nice
And then you run

Little sister, don’t you
Do what your big sister done

Little sister, don’t you
Do what your big sister done

Little sister, don’t you
Do what your big sister done

I'm Very, Very Sick

(Cough) (Cough)

Blinded By The Light

It had been a busy week and by last Sunday afternoon I was done. I lay down on the futon couch in the basement aching for sleep. I knew I was exhausted and the instant my body felt the firmness of the futon it seemed to sigh in relieve. I laid there with my eyes closed enjoying the relaxation I felt as the strain on the muscles that helped me keep upright diminished. As my body relaxed so did my mind and I lay there letting my thoughts drift while unconsciously focusing on the sound of my breathing. Then, BAM!, my mind was flooded with a bright light.

My instinct was telling me to open my eyes but I ignored it as the light filled every crevice of my brain. This wasn't the first time the light had filled my head, I've called the light when meditating and I've had the light appear to me as a child whenever I had my eyes screwed tightly shut in fear. I struggled for a few moments with the desire to open my eyes because the light felt blinding and I wanted to get away from it but then I realized that I did not have to open my eyes because "they" were already open. I lay there feeling the weight of my eyelids over my eyeballs as the light got brighter still and started expanding outward. The light felt soothing, and comforting, and loving, and I wanted to drift in it forever.

Then, moments, seconds, minutes, later the light started to dim and I quietly lay there as it slowly vanished. After it was gone I wanted to open my eyes but I was afraid if I did so I would find that the light came from a source inside the room or from outside the house. Finally, I opened my eyes and saw that the room was half dark with the window curtains pulled tight against the outside light. I sat up and felt as refreshed as if I had slept for hours.

Now I wonder why the light came to me at all. Was it to comfort me in some way? Was it to protect me for some reason? To heal me, to prepare me, to give me strength? Only time will tell.

Yesterday Morning's Fog And Ice

Grain elevators in the fog


Frozen berries


Ice fence

Blog Maintenance Update

Good morning, everyone. I thought I would re-post some things I wrote in the my comments about the new commenting system for anyone who missed them the first time.

First, I'm still learning about this system but I've discovered that you don't have to comment as a guest. You can go to the name box (where the word "guest" is written), delete the word "guest" and then put in your own name. Next, write what you want to in the comment box and then click on post.

I've also discovered that if you click on that little arrow in the From box you can go to a list of other sites that will let you link yourself to your profiles at those sites. This lists includes sites like Google Account, Blogger, Twitter, and others. You can also go to the bottom of the list and just enter your blog address.

There are a lot of bells and whistles with this system but you don't have to use any of them at all if you don't want too. I'm not going to and you don't have to either.

A New Year Here And An Old Year Gone

The Old Year
by John Clare

The Old Year's gone away
To nothingness and night:
We cannot find him all the day
Nor hear him in the night:
He left no footstep, mark or place
In either shade or sun:
The last year he'd a neighbour's face,
In this he's known by none.

All nothing everywhere:
Mists we on mornings see
Have more of substance when they're here
And more of form than he.
He was a friend by every fire,
In every cot and hall--
A guest to every heart's desire,
And now he's nought at all.

Old papers thrown away,
Old garments cast aside,
The talk of yesterday,
Are things identified;
But time once torn away
No voices can recall:
The eve of New Year's Day
Left the Old Year lost to all.