From the Treetop

Quote of the Day: "Our

Quote of the Day: "Our lives improve only when we take chances -- and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves." -- Walter Anderson

I've just finished visiting a bunch of my favorite Blogs. On my travels, I left comments here and there. I feel like Johnny Appleseed.

I've added two more Blogs to my Blog Roll - Halley's Comment and Paradox1x.

I found Karl through BurningBird, but I'm not sure where I found Halley's Comment. I just loved the name, and I like what she writes.

Just a few comments about the Blogs on my Blog Roll. I read most of them every day. They're the ones I enjoy for no other reason, than I do. There's not much rhyme nor reason to the order. I change it from time to time, depending on where my interest lies.

I found Meryl Yourish while searching for Bloggers in NJ. I found BurningBird from there. They are still my two favorites. I follow links on Blogs and I never know where I'll end up. It's an adventure. I love it.

Check out this little laundry story on Wockerjabby. So simple, yet it says so much more.

Hockey tonight. Devils vs Philly. Karl, are you listening down there in Philly? Go Devils! <g>

Quote of the Day: "People

Quote of the Day: "People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost." -- H. Jackson Browne

This is a rerun quote, because it is so appropriate.

After I posted yesterday's blog entry, I had some time to reflect on it and I realized that I'd missed making an important point. This bright light shined down on me and the words blinked on in bright pink neon (not really, but it sounds good, doesn't it?)

It doesn't matter!

I realized that it doesn't matter whether John Dvorak gets it or not. It doesn't matter if any of us gets it. It only matters to those who do. Could be the Cluetrain Manifesto. Could be Blogging. Could be something else.

For instance, there are thousands of people who love WWF wrestling. I don't. Frankly, I don't get it. I don't see the fascination with people pretending to beat each other up. But that's okay, because many others do. Why should I tell them to stop - unless they are hurting someone. (and in the case of wrestling, I guess that's debatable <g> - but that's JMO). Why should I belittle something they seem to enjoy, but something I don't understand.

I like hockey. So do all the other hockey fans. Non-hockey fans don't get it. They think it's all about the fights. Real hockey fans don't care about the fights. If they happen, they happen. If they don't, they don't. But the non-hockey fans don't get it. No problem. Go watch baseball or football or curling. There are plenty of sports to go around. It is not required that you like them all.

Some people believe in Buddha, others in Yahweh, still others in Jesus Christ or Allah. Does it matter? Your beliefs are your beliefs. Your likes are your likes. As long as they don't infringe on mine, why should I care? As long as your likes or beliefs please or comfort you, and don't harm others, why should anyone else care?

That's where the problems come in - when we try to tell others that the things they value, have no value. We are not being fair or wise, when we dismiss that which we do not understand as valueless. Why would anyone think they have the authority to do that? Is there some kind of commission out there that appoints people to decide what has value and what hasn't? Did I miss something?

Quote of the Day: "You

Quote of the Day: "You cannot speak of ocean to a well-frog, the creature of a narrower sphere. You cannot speak of ice to a summer insect, the creature of a season." -- Chuang Tzu, Chinese Philosopher

If I thought John Dvorak would read this, I'd send it to him (I'm not going to give him a link - you all know where to find him <G>), but after reading his last column in PC Magazine, I doubt very much if he'd set much store by anything I said. I am, after all, one of those people - you know, the people who Blog.

So this is an open letter of sorts to John Dvorak, should he happen to find himself in Blogspace. Or perhaps someone will send it to him. <VEG>

I actually found his column on the Cluetrain Manifesto quite amusing. First off, I have no idea why he chose to review a book that was published back in 1999, but he did. Clearly this book has been on his mind for a long time.

I don't know about Mr. Dvorak, but if I thought something was as insignificant and preposterous as he seems to think the Cluetrain Manifesto is, I certainly wouldn't bother writing about it several years after the fact.

He claims there is "cult thinking" involved, then he exclaims, "But, of course, 'I don't get it.'" This last phrase leaves a puddle of sarcasm and condescension oozing down the screen.

His superior tone indicates that he really does get it, but the rest of us are simply too dumb to see that he gets it. We're not smart enough to understand that he just doesn't want it. He's not buying into the philosophy.

Hey, no problem. Different strokes for different folks. But he can't let it go so easily. He continues to belittle those who do find merit in these ideas - because, of course, in his mind he knows better than we do. (Why he thinks this, I have no idea!)

I think Mr. Dvorak is like "the well-frog" or the "summer insect" in today's quote. He really doesn't get it, because the ideas behind the Cluetrain Manifesto are like the ocean to the well-frog and ice to the summer insect. They are simply beyond his sphere of comprehension. He doesn't have a clue <G> He has missed the train.

I should like to suggest that Mr. Dvorak get a copy of the Cave allegory from Plato's Republic, then I suggest he read it.

The people in Plato's cave are chained so that they can only see the wall in front of them. There is a light source behind them that casts shadows on the wall. The shadows are all they can see. Because this is all they know, they have come to believe that the shadows are what is real.

It's been awhile since I've read it, but IIRC, some of the cave people get outside the cave. They see light and real things, not just shadows. When they go back to the Cave, they try to convince those inside the cave that what they have been seeing is not real. Needless to say, they are scoffed at and scorned. The Cave dwellers do not "get it" because they have known nothing else but the shadows. Anything else is simply beyond their comprehension.

I don't know if those of us who understand what the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto are saying are the Cave Dwellers or if Mr. Dvorak is, but I strongly suspect that he is the one who has not ventured outside the Cave.

It was clear to me when I first read the introduction to the Cluetrain Manfesto some time ago, that it contained a large measure of truth. Corporations have lost contact with the people who actually use their products or services. In fact they don't even think of us as people. To them we are indeed, eyeballs or seats or bits of data in their demographics. All you have to do is spend some time watching TV commercials to know this.

They care not what we think, or feel or, dream. They care only what they can get us to buy or use. They care only where we fit in their collection of numbers.

The established media outlets are being rapidly bought out by these same corporations. Our government representatives are too often bought by them as well. None of those behind these corporations want two way communication. They want products out - dollars back in. And they care very little about the products, only the dollars. Can you say, "Enron?" I'll bet you can!

The internet scares "The Powers That Be" behind the scenes. We might talk to each other - horrors!. We might dare to expose the little man behind the curtain who pretends to be the Great and Powerful Wizard. We might find that in this web world, where we can't even see what the other person looks like, we might find real people instead of shadows. Arabs might meet Jews, and find they like each other. Blacks and whites can't see the color of the other person's skin, so they don't know who is and who isn't. Old and young cross the age barriers society has erected. We might just find that we, the people, are more alike than we are different.

That's a scary thought to those who profit from keeping us all in our separate little boxes, or in a Cave staring at shadows.

Perhaps that sounds idealistic, but I've seen evidence of it in my 14 years on the internet. And I'm willing to bet, there are many who would close the floodgates before it overcomes their tidy little worlds.

I'll leave you with two more quotes. The first is from Will Rogers, "Narrow-minded people are a lot like narrow-necked bottles. The less that's in them, the more noise it makes coming out." The second is from Emmanuel Goldstein, a computer hacker, "On the Internet, everyone is an equal until they prove themselves to be a moron." Mr. Dvorak, are you listening? BTW, Like Meryl Yourish, I like your music, better. The New World Symphony is rather nice (kind of an ironic title as well). Perhaps you should stick with what you know.<G>

Quote of the Day: "Don't

Quote of the Day: "Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out of it alive." -- Elbert Hubbard

After all that thinking yesterday, I need a break or I'll get a headache, so today I thought I'd just give you all some fun things to do.

From the Evolt Chat list ... You can take the Web IQ test. Kind of fun. Good timewaster. There is a trick. See if you can figure it out.

And from the Web IQ test, I found The Useless Pages. Read what Wired had to say about this site or see it for yourself.

I have time for one quick story.

I never met my maternal grandmother because she died long before I was born, but I think I would have like knowing her. She came alive for me through the stories my mother told about her.

My grandfather worshipped her. When she died the sunshine went out of his life and he was never the same man, afterward. He would do anything for her, and I have letters he wrote to her to prove it.

Shortly before they were to be married, her mother died. She was quite disheartened and sad, so a friend of hers (whose father was the skipper of the Vanderbilt's yacht) invited her to spend some time up in Providence, RI with her family. My grandmother went.

I have no idea how my grandmother spent her time up there, but I do know she wasn't much of a letter writer. My grandfather wrote her nearly every day, and every so often he would ask her to write back. She may not have been much of a writer, but she did save all my grandfather's letters all nicely tied up with a blue satin ribbon. I found them years later when my mother's sister died. They were in a little wooden trunk with some old pictures at the top of one of my aunt's closets. My cousin had said that we should take whatever we wanted, because he was just going to throw it all away. I'm so glad I was there, or this treasure would have been lost to my family for all time.

After my grandmother and grandfather were married and had four children, they settled into a big Victorian-style house in Staten Island. My grandmother went into the parlor one night after dinner and asked my grandfather if he wanted to go to the movies. My grandfather, who had settled down in his Morris chair to listen to his favorite radio program, said, "No."

My grandmother told my mother to get ready to go to the movies. My mother, said, "But Daddy said he didn't want to go."

My grandmother responded, "He wants to go, he just doesn't know it, yet."

So my mother and her two brothers and sister would get ready to go. My grandmother would meet them in the hall outside the parlor in her coat and hat. After she'd checked to make sure they were all bundled up properly, faces washed, hair combed, she would go into the parlor and call to my grandfather, "Charlie, we're ready to go to the movies now."

My grandfather would look up, see his wife and children standing there in their coats, then he would get his coat and they would go to the movies.

According to my mother, this happened on a regular basis.

Quote of the Day: "I

Quote of the Day: "I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management." -- E.B. White

I've been following the "Axis of Evil" discussion on BurningBird's Blog. While Shelley is on the road somewhere (safely, I hope) between St. Louis and San Francisco, the discussion has gone on without her.

Tom Graves, an Australian, seems (from his comments) to be seriously concerned about where the world is heading with all this rhetoric. Dave (no web site), a staunch America-supporter, took exception to Tom's comments, as did Karl Martino. Meryl Yourish also disagreed with Tom's remarks, namely this one - "In Islamic law, usury is not just a crime: it's considered evil, a destroyer of the soul. The 'Western' economic model, of which, as Dave says, the US is the primary promoter and (for those higher up in the pecking-order) the primary benefactor, is founded on usury."

Starting here, I'm going to ramble on a bit, since I have more to say than would fit in a blog comment.

Tom's reference to usury and the Islamic beliefs on the subject made me think (thinking is a good thing). I seem to recall reading sometime over the last few months something along those lines - that Islamic law prohibits usury. In my mind, usury is practiced primarily by loan sharks, but I looked it up in my trusty Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary (the best IMO) and the first definition says that usury is "the lending of money with an interest charge for its use." The second definition gets into the exorbitant interest charge issue.

So following Tom's reasoning, I can see why a devoted Muslim (if my recollections on Islamic law are correct) would not look favorably (to say the least) on a nation whose economic model is based on usury. BUT (big but) ... as I understand it - and I'm not an economist by any means - our American economic model is based primarily on supply and demand. Usury may enter into the equation, but that's not the primary focus.

I have a product or service. You need or want that product or service. How badly I think you need or want the service/product determines the price I set for it. Supply and demand - a simplification, if you will. And yes I know it's more complex than that <g>

You should also know that I don't wholly endorse the system, because it allows for price gouging. Honorable people/companies will set a fair price in spite of the demand, while greedy and dishonorable ones (especially in a short supply situation) will set as high a price as the traffic will bear regardless of that price's relationship to the cost.

Short of finding a way to mandate honor, I don't have a real solution to this problem. Oh, yes, I know there are laws, but I also know that too often they are ineffective.

So what I'm saying is that while Tom's allegation has merit because it made me consider another point of view, I don't think it's accurate.

Tom said another thing, however - "Getting outside of our own 'obvious' mindset and worldview can be damn hard work: but often it's the only way to understand why people suddenly seem angry with us for no apparent reason" - that I happen to think is not only valid, but worth serious consideration.

I really do believe from the bottom of my heart that we all - every citizen of every country in the world - has to do this if we ever want to achieve a lasting peace. We need to do whatever we can to look at the world situation from as many different angles as we can.

We can not just dismiss even the most radical idea until we have examined the issues that gave birth to that idea. If we just dismiss ideas that are extreme (at one end of the spectrum), or simply don't mesh with our own (at the other end), we will continuously butt our heads against a wall. We will never understand, never get to the root of the problem, and therefore never find a resolution to our differences of thought.

I know there are mad men, psychopaths and sociopaths in the world - probably far too many. One is actually far too many. But they often take the lead, and others too often follow. I don't believe the followers are insane or psychopathic or sociopaths. They are people with problems and they see this particular leader as a solution to those problems. What we need to examine are these problems and their sources.

Blaise Pascal wrote, "We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others." Unless we examine the path that led other people to their current state of mind, we can never get them to see that perhaps they have been following the wrong path. Unless we understand (not accept, simply understand) their point of view, we can never hope to get them to understand ours.

The risk in undertaking such an examination, is that one may suddenly comprehend that one's deeply held beliefs are no longer valid. We all - each and every one of us - cling to our beliefs with ferocious tenacity. They are our rock, our foundation. When you learn, through whatever means, that your belief is not valid, you are set adrift on an unknown sea. You no longer have a safety net, or a life preserver. Such a journey is very perilous and rather formidable. It is understandable why most of us do not wish to take such a risk. But take it, we must.

I often think about Third World Nations and the countries that seem locked in past centuries, and I wonder why they have not made the advances that Europe or the US, Canada, Japan, etc. have made. Why do they always seem vulnerable to dictatorial and authoritarian governments? Why do their governments fall from one coup to the next? Why do the people seem to simply accept what happens?

While I'm still seeking the answers, I have found some common links. Mostly the population of these nations are poor - poorer than we in the US can even imagine. They are also mostly uneducated.

If you take a look at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs you will see that these people haven't gotten past the first two levels. How can you think about educating yourself and your children to the level of caring, let alone doing something about your system of government when you don't have a decent supply of food and drinkable water? How can you begin to move beyond these basic needs if you barely have shelter from the elements? The answer is, you can't.

Those of us fortunate enough to not only have; food, water, shelter and education, but to also have computers and access to the internet, have an obligation, IMO, to keep open minds. To talk to each other. To (stealing a line from Tom Graves) get outside of our own mindset and world view. Find out what others are thinking. Not their governments. Not their media. But the people themselves. Keep an open mind and listen - really listen to what they are saying. You don't have to embrace their ideas. You don't even have to agree with them, but it is imperative that we understand, or at least attempt to understand where they are coming from.

As I've said before, I'm neither a liberal nor a conservative - neither left nor right. I'm somewhere in the middle looking at both sides from a seat on the fence, or more often up in a tree looking for the path to wisdom. Down on the forest floor you can only see trees, and they won't tell you where the path lies. You have to climb to the top of the tallest one and look out over the forest from that lofty position. Then and only then can you find the path and the place where it leads. Of course, then you have to climb down from the tree and follow it. That's the hard part.

I'll close here with one other thought. There is a song, I first heard many years ago, by Sy Miller and Bill Jackson. I think it is called simply "The Peace Song." The last line is, "Let there be peace on earth. And let it begin with me."

A great ocean starts with one tiny drop of water. In Alice's restaurant, Arlo Guthrie speculated that if three people do something it's an organization. If fifty people do it, it's a movement. We can do it. Those of us who blog. Anyone with a web site. Anyone with an e-mail account. We can reach out. We can talk to someone who's life experience is different from ours. We can set the first foot on the path to understanding. We can begin the journey.

If you want to do just that. Start here at BurningBird and continue on to Waeguk is not a soup aka Stavros the Wonder Chicken.

If it works, I've added a comments feature. Try it out! Also, I've added some new Blogs to my Blog Roll - check them out. Good stuff to be found there.

Quote of the Day: "Imagination

Quote of the Day: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein

Just rambling today. I was going to get back to the whole "Axis of Evil" discussion, but I'm too tired today. Check out BurningBird on the same subject. Be sure to read the comments.

Everyone on the Evolt chat list has been taking the GE color test. It's a fun waste of time, but I'm only telling you this because I got all 24 right. <g>

I just saw that weird commercial (Today show on in the background) for Sprint's talking e-mail. I don't get it. Why? Why would you want talking e-mail? If you want to talk to someone, make a phone call. Many times when I'm reading e-mail, I wouldn't want it talking to me. Most times, actually. Dumb idea, IMO.

And just what are those people in the silver suits supposed to be?

I've been watching the Olympics sporadically. I don't get calling that forward facing Luge thing "Skeleton." I heard someone say that it was because the original sleds looked like skeletons. Why not just call it "sledding?" After all that's what it is. In fact, why not call the "Luge" sledding as well? Luge sounds like a Scandinavian or German word.

Hope the US team can beat the Russians tonight. Khabibulin, the Russian goalie is hot right now, and it's always hard to beat a hot goalie.

I want those Scandinavian sweaters Matt and Katie have been wearing at the Olympics.

Quote of the Day: "There

Quote of the Day: "There are many intelligent species in the universe. They are all owned by cats." -- Unknown

Okay, it's time to talk about cats.

The two who have chosen to live with us are Domino (tuxedo kitty on your left) and Dusty (grey stripe kitty on your right). They are sisters who will be three in April, and they came to us via the Bergen County Animal Shelter.

When they were kittens, they were inseparable. Their foster person had put a sign on their cage that read "Adopt Together." We were looking to adopt two kittens, but there were three in the cage. We didn't want to break up a family, but since we'd never been a multiple cat family before, we weren't so sure about having three.

The woman from the shelter who was helping us said, "Wait an minute, there's only supposed to be two cats in there." After taking a few minutes to place the interloper in his proper cage, she handed my husband and I the two kittens.

The kitten to be named "Dusty" looked absolutely terrorized, while TKTBN "Domino" climbed a tree who happened to be me. She made it all the way up to my head before we were able to corral her. Once we had them in our hands, of course, they were destined to go home with us. You have to know that I am a person who can't even put a stuffed animal back on the shelf, once I've picked it up. Trust me those kittens had found a home.

Figuring they would need some time to get used to their new surroundings, we set them up in the bathroom with a litter box, food, toys and a nice towel-filled box to sleep in. When they came out to explore a few days later (they spent the first few days huddled together behind the toilet), they were glued at the hip. If one strayed out of sight of the other for even a minute, much meowing ensued until they were once more reunited. I tell you all this because, Dusty has developed some odd habits as a result of her initial stay in our bathroom

We figure that she must not have been ready to leave her mommy cat. She's rather tiny (at least compared to Domino (it's hard to tell in the picture), so we figure she was probably the runt of the litter. Anyway, whenever the two kittens were cuddled together, Dusty tried to nurse on Domino. For a time, Domino allowed this, but as she grew older and more independent, she put a stop to it with a few well-placed whacks of a paw.

Dusty decided that we were an acceptable substitute. She will meow pitifully until one of us goes in the bathroom, and pets her while she sucks on an arm or article of clothing. Grudgingly she will accept pets elsewhere in the house, but sometimes you just have to go to the bathroom whether you want to or not.

Dusty is definitely our neurotic kitty. Since Domino would no longer allow her to nurse, Dusty decided that a second cat was no longer necessary. She fought with Domino over everything and took to marking her favorite spots, we presume so that Domino would know to stay away. Not fun.

Domino on the other hand is a most catly cat. She wants her bowl full, a warm place to sleep and a very old (belonged to our previous cat) and very ratty pink flannel mouse to play with. She's a happy cat.

If Dusty wanted her spot on the couch, Domino moved. If Dusty wanted the spot in the window or the top of the kitty condo, Domino moved. Dusty wasn't interested in the pink flannel mouse, thankfully. But Domino claimed the food dishes as her personal domain. Don't mess with her food.

To this day she will eat from her dish, until Dusty (who is picky eater) walks away. Then Domino goes over and eats all the food in Dusty's dish, saving her own for later. I'm not quite sure if she knows that Dusty comes back later, and just eats from whichever dish has food in it.

Today, three years later, they've worked out most of their differences and each have their sacrosanct spots, but lately they've begun a tug of war of sorts over my lap. For the longest time, Domino wasn't much interested in being a lap cat. She loves to be petted, but she prefers laying on her back on the floor so you have to bend over. Dusty, on the other hand, jumped into my lap at every opportunity.

My husband would try to get her to sit on his lap, but nothing doing. He felt left out. We would tell them, "two laps, no waiting," but that didn't matter.

Now suddenly Domino wants my lap too. Sometimes they both try to lay on my lap, but that doesn't work out too well. As I said, Domino is a big cat, and Dusty wants the whole lap and nothing but the lap. No sharing allowed.

Stay tuned to find out who wins the battle of the lap. More Dusty and Domino to follow.

Quote of the Day: "A

Quote of the Day: "A man who is 'of sound mind' is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key." -- Paul Valery

I'm somewhat amused at all this blogging about blogging about blogging. Kind of reminds me of those three pane mirrors. When you look in the one on the right and angle the one on the left so it's opposite, you can see yourself reflected into infinity.

Oh well, on to other things ...

Although, I am quite aware that I march to the beat of the proverbial "different drummer" (drummer nothing - I have a whole different band!), I have a rather strange habit of thinking that everyone thinks like I do. I also tend to think that if I know something, everyone else knows it too. When I come up against something that disproves these two theories, it often leaves me smacking myself in the head and saying, "Duh!"

Yesterday I was surfing around, reading blogs, and I came across these two sites - Keep Trying and News From Storybook Farm. My immediate thought was - whoa, someone has nicked someone else's design. I took a look at the source code of each site, and saw that they were nearly identical, then I spotted this reference "bloggertemplate59." Duh! Of course they looked alike - they are both using Blogger templates.

Though I use Blogger, I had forgotten all about the Blogger templates. When I signed up for Blogger, I just picked the first one in the group to get the Blogger code, then set about making my own page. I never gave using the templates a second thought. And of course, I just presumed that everyone else would do the same. Out of curiosity, I took a quick look through the templates and I recognized many of them from Blogs that I've been reading. I guess not everyone believes in doing things the hard way, like I do.<g> And I'm an inveterate tinkerer to boot! In fact, I've been known to tinker something to death.

Just rambling along similar lines ... A few months back when the Harry Potter movie premiered, I heard an interview with the author. She told the reporter that the publisher had made her change the title from "Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone" to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," because the publisher didn't think Americans would know what a Philosopher Stone was. I thought, "how ridiculous and insulting." After all everyone knows what a Philosopher Stone is.

When I told the story around work, I got a lot of strange looks. "Ehr, Kath," someone said, "What is a Philosopher Stone?" I looked around and everyone was looking back at me with the same question glimmering in their eyes. They didn't know either. So I explained that alchemists believed that the Philosopher Stone was the key that they needed to turn ordinary metal, usually lead, into gold.

They didn't believe me <g> They went to look it up on the internet and found out I was right.

How do I know these things? Where do they come from? I don't honestly know. My mind seems to suck up totally useless facts like a Hoover.

One of my teachers told me that I had a very broad knowledge base. The implication being that it wasn't very deep. One of my former bosses told me she couldn't understand how I could possibly think with all the nonsense that filled my brain. She didn't mean it kindly. At least I don't think she did.

I don't set out to learn all these things, they just collect in the corners of my mind, like cat hair collects in the corners of my home. (I think my cats are secretly trying to build another cat, but that's a story for another day.)

Yet, I keep figuring that everyone has such a collection of trivia. Don't they?

Mind your head, major change in tack coming. Don't let the boom knock you over board. I have a bunch of jumbled thoughts and I just have to get them down while I'm thinking about them.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting a bit tired of hearing about all this "Axis of Evil" talk. It makes me very uncomfortable. I know we're all supposed to be thinking George W. Bush is the greatest thing since sliced bread - patriotic duty and all that, but I didn't like him before the election. Didn't vote for him. Didn't like his father either. And much of what he's done since September 11, has left me very uncomfortable, as well.

I guess it's all part of the whole different drummer thing (and you thought there wasn't a theme!). I quite frequently find myself with very ambivalent feelings on significant issues. I often see both sides of an issue. Finding myself sitting atop a fence much of the time, could explain the uncomfortable feeling.

I'm neither a conservative nor a liberal. I'm not a Democrat nor am I a Republican. I'm mostly an odd mixture of the two.

I'm not entirely convinced that the US of A should be the guardian of the world, though George W. apparently feels we are. I mean really, who died and left us boss, anyway. I don't quite buy the, "We are the last superpower" bit. I was taught that might doesn't make right.

I know I'm not a "my country, right or wrong," kind of person, nor am I a "love it or leave it kind of person." In my opinion, the best thing about living in the US has been our freedoms, but as I look around in post 9/11 America, I see far too many of those freedoms being eroded away slowly with not enough people noticing. I see far too many Americans willing to surrender freedoms and liberties our founding fathers fought valiantly to secure for us. All to secure a very thin margin of safety. And I wonder how we will ever get those lost freedoms back once they are gone.

But to get back to the "Axis of Evil" business. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a turn the other cheek kind of person. Nor do I consider myself a pacifist. It just seems to me that if you want to win someone over to your way of thinking, you don't start out by labeling, not only the governments of 3 sovereign nations but the citizens of those countries as well, "evil."

Evil is one of those words that carries a whole lot more emotional weight than its dictionary definition would indicate. Many people who live in the Middle East and the East clearly think we're the ones who are evil. I don't like them thinking that, so I assume that they don't like us thinking of them in this manner either. Not exactly the way to "Win Friends and Influence People."

For far too many centuries countries, and tribes and clans before them have settled their differences by waging war. Perhaps it's a male thing, but I'm not so sure we women would do much better. Still I can't help but think that there has to be a better way.

I don't have the answer, but communication comes to mind. Breaking down the barriers that separate us all into little clusters, all eyeing the other clusters with suspicion, would certainly help.

We need to learn how the other folks think, and why they think that way. We need to teach them how we think and why we think that way.

I don't think we'll ever make any progress with the learning process if we stand on opposite sides of the world pointing fingers and calling each other names. We teach our children that this isn't the way to settle an argument, and yet it seems our leaders never learned these simple school yard lessons.

It takes two to Tango, two to wage war. How many does it take to make peace? My guess would be at least two, as well. Indira Gandhi said, "You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist." Seems like a good starting place.

Quote of the Day: "People

Quote of the Day: "People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost." -- H. Jackson Browne

I usually try to pick a quote that has to do with the day's ramblings, but today is going to be a mishmash so I just chose this quote because it is something I think we should all remember. It's that celebrating the differences thing again. Think how boring the world would be if we were all alike.

If you've been here before, you'll notice the new look. I've said before this is a work in progress. I didn't really like the green. It's not high on my list of favorite colors. Purple is my favorite, but it doesn't go with the whole treetop theme. I don't suppose the blue does either, but I like blue better than green.

And for anyone who's interested the layout uses CSS rather than tables. It's one of the things I love about making webs, the learning process never stops.

Kurmudgeon's Korner - Though I'm off today, it is a Monday and I haven't done one of these in awhile.

I hate trucks. All kinds of trucks actually, but mostly I hate tractor trailer trucks. I guess it is because they are so big, the drivers (not all, but waaay too many) seem to think they own the road and parking lots too. Yes, I know, it's a tough job and someone has to do it. I also know that most truckers work very hard. But that still doesn't excuse them driving like cars don't exist.

It doesn't excuse changing lanes suddenly without signaling. And yes I know cars do it too, but one car is not as likely to wipe out as many other cars as a tractor trailer could.

It doesn't excuse tailgating when you know you need more room to stop. If I'm doing the speed limit (and I'm usually going faster than that, unless the car in front of me is going slower), back off. Riding in my trunk isn't going to make me - or the car in front of me go any faster. (and that goes for car drivers who do the same thing)

Truckers are not careful enough when they back up. They figure that any car behind them should just get out of the way even if that car has nowhere else to go. Yo, truckers - open your window, and turn down the radio when you back up, so you can hear a horn if someone honks at you.

I once was following a truck on a local street - and yes I left plenty of room (at least 2 car lengths) between me and him. And I could see his mirrors. Whether he used them or not is another issue.

He discovered that he had missed his turn, and he just started backing up without so much as a by-your-leave. I couldn't back up any further because there were at least 4 cars right behind me. I leaned on my horn - a very loud air horn - but he just kept coming. He hit my car (and it's a good thing I was driving a Jeep or I'd have been under him) and continued backing up, pushing me toward the cars behind me, who were also scrambling to back up.

He finally cleared the intersection, and began to pull around the corner. Not thinking rationally, I got out of my car and chased after him. I ran alongside the truck shouting and waving my arms. He ignored me, or didn't see nor hear me. Finally I got his attention by whacking at the door with my keys (I carry a lot of keys on a long leather strap). When he stopped, then got out of the truck finally. He said, "What the hell is the matter with you?" I told him that he'd hit me and pushed in the front end of my car. He said, "I didn't feel anything. I couldn't have hit you."

Well, luckily I had a witness. Several in fact - all the cars behind me. I mean - how do you prove that someone backed into you?

But you see that's the problem. How could he not know he had hit something and pushed that something backwards for 10 feet - with that something's brake peddle pushed to the floor?

We need some way to separate cars and trucks. They don't belong on the same roads.

The local roads are the worst. Most of the time, trucks can't make the corners. They often end up knocking down light poles or riding up on sidewalks. Pedestrians don't have a chance.

Where I work, we have trucks coming into the parking lot all the time. They come barreling around a very steep, very tight curve without any consideration that there might be something in the way ... like another car or truck coming from the other direction. They stop, start, back up or turn without letting cars - or other trucks - know what their intentions are. And they don't even bother to look half the time to even see if there is anything in their way. They just assume because they are bigger everything else should get out of the way. It's that I'm bigger than you are, bullying type attitude that really fries my bacon. Like I said, we need to separate cars and trucks somehow. And don't even get me started on buses!

The discussion of what should or should not be in a blog continues. Shelley Powers aka BurningBird asks, "...how much is too much? How much can a person share in their weblog before some line is crossed between a healthy catharsis and sharing of emotions and experiences, and a complete and uncontrolled dump of self. What's your opinion? I really want to know. "

I was going to use Shelley's comments function to answer the question, but my answer would probably be too long. I hate monopolizing, though I often do it. <g> Besides those little boxes in the comments forms always make me feel claustrophobic.

This whole line business - whether it be drawing them or crossing them - fascinates me. I just don't know the answer - can't find the answer no matter how hard I look for it. It's an eternal question in my world - where do you draw the line. When can you cross a line drawn?

Mostly I've come up with - that depends on the circumstances. I don't think you can make rules that cover all situations. I see rules as a guideline or a measuring stick - never as an absolute. Circumstances can change a rule or make it null.

A few years ago, I worked for a company that was considering using an "honesty test" to screen job applicants. They gave a copy of it to those of us who were managers to get our opinions. I looked through the multiple choice questions and found a big problem - at least from my point of view (from the treetop, of course!). My answer to every question was, "depends on the circumstances," but that wasn't one of the choices.

We had a meeting on the test, and much discussion ensued. The representatives of the company that would be administering the test told us that any score over 85 would indicate that the testee was fairly honest. I asked, "what happens if someone scores 100?"

The rep assured me, that although it was unlikely that someone would score that high, if they did, the testee would be a very desirable candidate, indeed.

I said, "I don't think so. I wouldn't hire someone who got a perfect score, because that would mean that not only were they smart enough to figure out how the test worked, they were most likely dishonest as well." I also added that someone that smart and that dishonest could probably figure out a way to steal the company blind and not get caught.

I stumped them. No one had asked that question before and they hadn't even considered the possibility. They quickly changed the subject without addressing my concerns.

Using that test to screen candidates in my opinion, required drawing lines that couldn't be drawn so simply. Drawing lines is a most complex of processes. Where do my rights end, and yours begin? I don't think there is an answer to that question without examining the individual circumstances. The rich man who manipulates a stock so that he makes money while others lose, and the poor man who steals a loaf of bread to feed his children are both thieves in the eye of the law. But who is more culpable? Who can more easily be forgiven?

The value of a weblog's content lies, like beauty or art - in the eye of the beholder. It's very subjective. Who is qualified to judge such value? Not I, that's for sure.

I'm a maverick. I'm not a square peg in a round peg world, I'm more of an octogon shaped peg in a world of round and square pegs. I learned awhile back that I don't generally think the way most people do. I find my logic perfectly clear and well ... logical, but I get a lot of funny looks.

When I was young that bothered me. I wanted to fit in and I sacrificed a lot of myself in the process. Now that I'm old enough to "wear purple" (note: to self - put the poem somewhere others can read it, easily), I don't worry as much about what other people think of me. They will either like me, or not. Such is life. The most important lesson I've learned is that if I change myself so that others will like me, I am no longer me, so who they like is someone other than me - if that makes any sense. So what you see is what you get. This is me - take it or move along. I'm through with compromising who I am.

I'm still not absolutely sure of who I am. I'm still on a journey of discovery, but that too is who I am. Discovery of new things and exploration is what keeps me going.

I'm also a Gemini, so you can't possibly expect me to be consistent - unless it's consistently changing.

I'm not guaranteeing anything here with my blog - except that it will change. Like all good mavericks, I'm not following the herd, but sometimes I'll run with the herd as long as it suits me. Often I've found the herd or part of it following me. I'm not leading, nor am I following - we're just headed in the same direction for a time.

So I can't really answer Shelley's question for anyone other than me. I do what I feel is right for me, and if I make a connection with someone else - fantastic! I love it! If I don't, oh well, better luck next time for both of us. It's never time wasted because it's an experience, and how else can we learn except by trying, by taking a chance.

Wayne Gretsky said, "You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take." (speaking of ice hockey - way to go Team USA - we are now beating Belarus 4-1! Big time ice hockey fan here.)

So I'm here, taking a chance. Sticking my neck out, reaching for the best fruit at the end of the branch.

If you're up here in the tree with me, welcome! Pull up a branch and set a-spell. If what you see here is not to your liking, I wish you well on your journey and hope you find a better fit some place.

Oh - one last thing before I go ... there was some discussion in BB's comments about whether a blog has comments or not. I'm not about to make a judgement about whether someone else should or should not have comments. I figure that's their perogative.

I would have comments, if I could figure out how to do it. I'm working on it - it's a learning thing <g>. But until I figure it out, anyone who feels like making a comment on any content here, can always e-mail me - topkat@cyber-kat.com. If you give me permission, I may even post them as well.

Quote of the Day: "Better

Quote of the Day: "Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." -- Cyril Connolly, critic and editor (1903-1974)

For the past couple of days, I've been following a cross-blog discussion that is basically about whether one has the right to write whatever one wants to in their blog.

The fracas all started with Jonathon Delacour writing about the changes to the format of his blog and his adventures with CSS. Interesting to some (Moi, included), but obviously not to others, namely Matthew Thomas.

Such is life - if it's not interesting, move on. Surely with all the blogs out there, one can find blogs that are more to one's liking.

Apparently, MT was not at all happy with the recent content of JD's blog. Writing in his own defense, he claims his criticism was an Aussie vs NZ kind of thing, but I don't know about that, not being an Aussie nor a New Zealander. Just seemed kind of rude to me.

Meryl Yourish (aka NJ Meryl) jumped to the defense of her blogging buddy (as I probably would have done, if I were Meryl), and then the slings and arrows began to fly all across Blogdom.

You'll have to read the various blogs if you want to follow the discussion. I'm not providing links to the individual posts.<g> (sorry Meryl, don't like smileys, but I'm not giving up my <g>s - they are sooo much a part of me. After all, no one can see the silly expressions on my face over the web.)

In following the discussion, which was also mentioned in Texas (not to be confused with NJ) Meryl's blog, I happened on a comment to her posting from Madhu "MadMan" Menon, whose blog I read on occasion. In the comment "MadMan" referred to an article he wrote in his Blog that was similar in nature.

In his article, he mentions another article (are you following this convoluted path?) - Why Blogger Empowers Mindless Nits , by Morbus - which made me angry ... and that's the whole purpose of this round about posting.

In this article, the author lambastes, not only bloggers, but personal web page makers as well. He says:

"Yes, those worthless waste's of bandwidth where desperate and self-indulgent people would shove pictures of their dog down your saturated pipe, or little Mickey in his 'cutest outfit yet', or the equivalent of endless slide shows about their most treasured vacation."

He goes on and on about what a pointless waste of time all these blogs and personal pages are. He concludes by saying ...

"If it's useless, you're wasting resources. The Internet is full. Go away."

Well, excuse me, how rude and arrogant can you get! Psst Morbus, did it ever occur to you that some of us might consider your blog a "worthless waste's of bandwidth?"

I could even pick on your grammar or lack thereof, but I won't stoop to that level. <hint> there shouldn't be an apostrophe in wastes - among other things. </hint> Nor will I throw grammar and spelling stones when I know that I occasionally dwell in a glass domicile myself <g>. I have been known to use some creative grammar on occasion, however one must keep in mind that it is necessary to know the rules, before you break them on purpose.

It's like the spam thing. I just don't get the whole ruckus.

If people want to make a web site or blog that that contains chatter about babies or cats or dogs or vacations or adventures with CSS, that is their inalienable right. No one ... I repeat, no one has the right to tell them to "go away" or stop writing about such subjects.

Don't get me wrong - you certainly have the right to your opinion on whether such content is worthwhile or simply tripe, and you have the right to express that opinion - but you don't have the right to tell others to stop writing or blogging.

Like Voltaire, "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." I'm not telling anyone to stop condemning that which they do not like, I'm simply expressing my opinion that telling them "The Internet is full. Go away," is rude and arrogant.

If the page you're on isn't to your liking (mine included), move along. One click in your bookmarks will take you someplace else. It's a big internet. There's room for everyone. No one is forcing you to read any web page or blog that you don't want to.

No one forced me to read Morbus' diatribe. I chose to read it because IMO, the path to wisdom is through knowledge - knowledge of all things, not just the things you like. By exposing oneself to all viewpoints one might even discover that the viewpoint you hold most dear is out of focus.

And so I celebrate the differences. I celebrate the variety of content that can be found on the web. I celebrate the most erudite, and I celebrate the most banal as well.

In my opinion, that is the glory of the web. It is a place where you can be free to be who you are ... even if you don't know who you are, but are still on a journey to find that person.

Perhaps Morbus doesn't want to read about the dogs or Mickey or vacations, but I'd be willing to bet the farm, that someone does. Maybe it's just Mickey's grandparents or aunts and uncles. Maybe the dog lovers want to see pictures of other people's pets. Perhaps someone considering a vacation is looking at the vacation pictures. Possibly someone stumbled across them and it brought a smile or a tear. They made a connection and that matters.

And perhaps no one is looking at them at all, and they are just out there, like the proverbial tree falling in the forest with no one to hear it. So what. They are not harming anyone and I'm quite sure they matter to the person who put them there. I'm quite sure that person feels what they have to say is just as important as Morbus and Matthew Thomas think what they have to say is important.

In case you missed it, I shall repeat today's quote - "Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self." (Cyril Connolly) - and I shall add William Shakespeare's - "This above all; to thine own self be true."

That's about all you owe anyone ... that and respect for the right of others to be true to themselves as well.

Quote of the Day: "You,

Quote of the Day: "You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection." -- Buddha

Today is Valentine's Day - a day to celebrate relationships. But somewhere in all the hoopla about couples, an important factor of relationships gets lost. In my opinion, it is far more important to celebrate oneself. Before you can form a relationship, you have to love yourself.

If you are alone and you truly love yourself, you won't be as likely to feel adrift without a significant other. If you don't love yourself, no matter what kind of relationship you're in, it won't be enough. There will be something missing - something in all probability you can't quite put your finger on. If you are not comfortable with yourself, with who you are, how can you possible give a part of yourself to someone else?

So I say we need to change February 14th to Love Yourself Day. Go ahead, do something special for your sweetie if you have one, but do something special for yourself as well. Everyone can join in Love Yourself Day! It's a non-discriminatory holiday. It doesn't leave any one out. Buy yourself some flowers and don't be ashamed to tell everyone you bought them for yourself because you deserve them.

If you don't have a significant other to celebrate with, go out with a friend or family member. Treat yourselves to a special dinner or a movie you've been wanting to see. Be even more daring, take yourself out to dinner! Take a long bubble bath or buy a special bottle of wine.

But however you celebrate or not - because that should be a gift to yourself as well, the ability not to celebrate if you don't want to - remember to love yourself. You deserve it.

If you're watching the Olympics or just a junkie for behind-the-scenes trivia, check out this blog. The guy is working the Olympics and his blog is full of little tidbits. Some funny, some surprising, some just interesting.

Quote of the Day: "Only

Quote of the Day: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." -- Albert Einstein

Writing about the phone scam the other day, got me thinking about scams in general. If you believe what you read in the papers, there seem to be quite a number of popular scams. I can only think that people must fall for them, or there wouldn't be enough profit in it to keep the scamsters at it.

Easy money they call it. Must be called that for a reason, but I don't get it. I suppose you could get someone with a home repair scam. A widow perhaps whose husband handled that sort of thing. But the scam I really don't get at all is the "found money" ploy.

It goes like this. Someone claims to have found some money - the circumstances vary - but they pick a stranger and offer to share.

Now why would they want to do that? Why would anyone who found money offer to share it with a perfect stranger? That should tip you off right away. Share it with friends. Share it with family. Give it to a charity. I don't get it.

After offering to share, they they demand that you put up some sort of security bond. Huh??? Why? What is this bond for? Let me get this straight. You found the money. For some bizarre reason you have chosen to share it with me - a perfect stranger. Don't know you from Adam. But I should put up a bond so you can trust me. Right about now you should be smelling a rat! If you aren't, there's something seriously wrong with your olfactory glands (and don't look now, but if you are seriously considering it, get your brain checked out as well because it has obviously short circuited.)

Doesn't anyone find this odd? My response would be, "If you want to share it. Let me have it, thank you very much. It's been nice doing business with you. Sorry, but I'm not putting up any bond."

Who are the people who fall for this scam? What can they possibly be thinking? Are they that greedy? That stupid? I just don't get it.

A few years ago, I read about a man who put an ad in the paper. It read simply, "Send me a dollar," and included a post office box number. Apparently 500 people sent him a dollar. Several of them complained to the better business bureau and the post office that they didn't receive anything in return. Duh! The ad didn't say he was going to send you anything. Why would people respond to something like that? It wasn't even a scam. It was just fancy begging. He couldn't even be prosecuted. He said, "Send me a dollar," and people did. Boggles my mind.

I read in Meryl Yourish's Blog that she has sworn off emoticons - including the simple <g>. I say "Brava" to her courage, but I'm not that confident. I figure people are often not quite sure what I mean. And sometimes I just want to grin just for the heck of it. You can't see me doing it behind my computer screen, so I have to throw one in now and again. It's a very old habit - one I'm not sure I want to break. But that's all you get from me. Just the occasional <g>. No fancy emoticons or happy faces (though I must take some credit for the proliferation of those happy faces - I gave away bunches of them in the early seventies <g> - long before they were so ubiquitous.)

I envy Burningbird her wanderings, but I miss reading her multiple postings.

Almost forgot. I've been meaning to tell you about a movie I watched when I was sick. It's called "Where the Heart is." It's the kind of treacley story, I don't usually like these sweet little stories, but this one was kept from being overly sweet by a strong kookiness. There's a lot to be said for kooky. And the characters are ... well, characters. The pregnant heroine gets dumped by her boyfriend (father of the baby) at a KMart in Oklahoma. She ends up living in the Kmart. Many humorous and poignant tales follow as she finds her way through life trying to avoid the number 5.

It's on HBO this month. Check it out if you get the chance. Girls only - no guys - this is definitely a chick flick.

Quote of the Day: "Worry

Quote of the Day: "Worry is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere" -- Dorothy Galyean

I don't quite get the brouhaha over spam. What is the big deal? You don't even have to open it. You can tell it's crap just by looking at the headers. Would I really be interested in a product that guarantees to increase the size of my penis? Neat trick if you can do it folks, especially since I don't have one in the first place. I'll pass.

Hot teenage girls? Farm Animals? I don't think so folks. Don't want to spy on anyone. Not interested in magical weight loss programs, a new mortgage, nor am I interested helping the ex-financial minister of lower Uganda launder his ill gotten gains. So what do I do with all these unwanted e-mails?

Simple. I highlight each and every one of them along with the sale notices from Barnes & Nobel, Victoria's Secret, E-bags and Chadwick's then I hit the little trash can icon on the Eudora menu bar. One extra click on the Empty Trash icon and I've assigned them all to the ether. Gone. No more spam.

I don't need fancy filters. I don't need e-mail watch dogs sniffing out the spam in my e-mail. I don't need the privacy seal group, Truste putting their seal of approval on ads that I might want to read. I can make these decisions myself. Two mouse clicks and all the spam is gone. So I ask again ... what's the big deal?

Why do we need anti-spam legislation? Do people really read this stuff? Do they really believe that the aforementioned ex-financial minister of lower Uganda has money for them? Do they really need protection from their own stupidity?

I've heard people claim that it's a violation of their privacy. Well, let me tell you, you have a lot more important privacy issues to worry about post 9/11 than the fact that someone has your e-mail address. The FBI is reading over your shoulder, spam and all - how's that for a violation of privacy? And what about all the junk snail mail that you get? Those people have your actual home address, folks. I worry about that a lot more than I worry about someone having my e-mail address.

Why are there no groups taking up arms to fight the battle against junk snail mail? Not only are they killing trees with all their unnecessary paper products, after you toss it away it fills a landfill somewhere or must use energy so it can be recycled. All spam does is use up a few bits of bandwidth.

And while we're at it. Where are the people rising up to prevent those folks from trying to sell me replacement windows at dinner time? Why is no one protecting me from the phone scams? (remind me ... I have a story about this) Or the credit card pushers? Or the people who want me to switch long distance carriers?

These annoying pests call at the worst possible moments. I swear they have tiny cameras in all our homes so they know the moment you sit before a plate of hot food or sit down to watch your favorite show. Where are all the privacy advocates then? Never mind about the spam. I'll deal with the spam. Get the ads out of my snail mail and keep the phone sharks away. IMO, they are much more of a problem than a few bits of spam.

The Story Thought I'd forget, didn't you?

I was home from work one day and I got a phone call from a very chipper young lady who informed me that I'd won a prize. Kind of strange since I hadn't entered any contests.

I usually respond to such phone calls by interrupting the spiel with "Sorry I'm not interested," then I hang up before they get a chance to recover, but that day I didn't. Guess I was bored or something.

The young lady went on to explain that I had a choice of prizes. Oh goodie! I could have a Chevy Blazer, some sort of boat, a dream vacation or $50,000. All I had to do was agree to accept a catalog they would send me, then purchase some merchandise from it ... and pay the shipping on whatever prize I chose.

While I was mentally calculating the shipping charges on the Chevy Blazer or the boat, it hit me. The perfect solution. A no-brainer, really.

"Okay," I told the caller. "I'll take the $50,000. Pick me something out of your catalog, deduct it from the $50,000. Also deduct the postage - hey send it Fed Ex. I can afford it. Then send me a check for the balance."

There was utter silence on the other end of the phone. I had hit the jackpot. Stumped the band.

"Ehr ... I don't think you understand," Ms Phone Scam person said. "It doesn't work that way."

"Why not," I responded. "Makes perfect sense to me. Fits all your rules. I like it. I'll take it. When can I expect my check?"

"Well it doesn't work that way," the young lady stammered. I had her. She couldn't explain why.

"Well, then I don't want to play," I said and hung up.

A few minutes later, the phone rings again. Same scam. This time it's a young man. He patiently explains all the rules like he is talking to an idiot. I patiently explain my interpretation. He patiently explains that the contest doesn't work that way. I patiently explain that if they want me to play - those are the rules I'm playing by. We agree to disagree and hang up.

A few minutes more pass by. My phone rings again. This time I am speaking with the senior Vice President of the ABC Phone Scam Company. I'm suitably impressed - NOT!

"There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding," he says. "No," I reply, "There's no misunderstanding at all. If you want me to play, I have explained the conditions under which I will participate. If you don't like them, we have nothing to discuss. Have a nice day."

"But wait," he says, trying desperately to explain. I'm laughing at him going over and over the same rules like I'm some kind of simpleton who just doesn't understand.

I can't make up my mind if they were all just passing me around the scam shop because my response was a first for them and they were getting a charge out of trying to challenge my logic - or did they really think they'd caught a live one who needed some convincing. To this day I'm still not sure, but I never got the check. Hey it was a way to pass a half hour. What can I say? I'm easily amused.

Quote of the Day: "Whatever

Quote of the Day: "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." -- Mahatma Gandhi

A friend of mine once told me that I should write my autobiography or memoirs. This was after we spent the evening exchanging tidbits of our lives. I laughed and said, "Who would be interested?"

"You'd be surprised," she answered and reminded me of the popularity of such collections of life stories such as "I Remember Mama," "Life with Father" and Garrison Keillor's "Lake Woebeggon" tales.

Somehow, despite her assurances that my stories were funny and entertaining, I didn't see myself in that category. I kept remembering someone else who used to groan each time I'd say, "That reminds me of a story ..." I got the distinct impression that she was less than enthusiastic about my storytelling abilities.

Still I have thought about it from time to time, collecting my favorite tales and putting them in one place. Perhaps my family might want to read them someday ... they are for the most part family stories, after all. Even thought about a title. I'd call it "Life in the Slow Lane," or more likely, "Life in the Wrong Lane," since it seems I have a knack for not being in the right place at the right time. I definitely have a knack for being in the wrong lane, that's for sure. Whenever there is a choice of lanes/lines, whether they be traffic, check out, ticket information, etc., I invariably chose the one that will take the longest. It's a gift, I know. So it seems an appropriate title.

Anyway, I thought that perhaps here in my web log would be a good place to try some out. If I start getting e-mails that say, "enough with the stories" I'll stop. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Story Number 1 - I once got hit by a car.

When I was a senior in high school, I got hit by a car while crossing a street. But to fully understand the whole story, I must go back a ways for it is quite significant that I got hit on the day of the gym show.

I went to a Catholic high school, Immaculate Heart Academy, to be precise. Now if you also went to Catholic school, you will know that there is always some sort of fundraising activity going on. IHA was no different.

We had a gymnasium, but no gym equipment to speak of beyond a few basketball hoops, so at this particular time in my academic life, we were holding a fundraiser to raise money to purchase gym equipment. Our teachers had put their heads together and came up with this brilliant idea to hold a Gym Show. All of the gym classes would participate in different gym-type activities and our parents and relatives would come to watch their little darlings shine. Ugh - can you think of anything more boring?

My gym teacher decided that our class would do precision marching. Oh fun! She also decided that we would wear our gym suits while doing so. I had a problem with this ... actually I had several problems, but my main one had to do with my gym suit - a lovely faded blue, one piece number with bloomer pants under shorts. I was a senior, and so I'd had it for awhile. I wasn't about to get a new one 3 months before the end of school, but mine was very sad. I had worn out the seat - probably from sitting on the bench too long. Did I say, I'm not very athletic?

To get it to last until the end of term, I had put a rather large iron on patch on it. Looked mahvelous! Who cared? Not my classmates, but I wasn't about to be seen in public in that outfit. I have some pride, you know.

I also had one sneaker in my size 7 and one that was about an 11 with an old sock stuffed in the toe. Why you ask? Because I'd lost one of mine about two weeks before and there was only one sneaker in lost and found - the size 11. Can you say, "clown foot?"

I did not want to be in the gym show. No one wanted to be in the gym show. The excuses were pouring in. My gym teacher sat us all down and read us the riot act. She didn't care what excuse you had, unless there was death or serious bodily injury involved, if you didn't participate in the gym show, you would fail gym and have to go to summer school. Oh joy, just what we all wanted to spend our post-graduation days doing - attending summer school because we failed gym.

All during the bus ride home, I was trying to think what I could do about the bottomless gym suit and mismatched sneakers. Would she accept me marching with a bag over my head so no one would know who I was? These thoughts were with me as we got off the school bus at our usual stop.

The intersection was a main one in the town I grew up in. Two main streets with the junior high school on one corner.

We needed to cross to the diagonal corner to get to the candy store where we always stopped for a soda or snack before walking home. We being the six or seven of us who got the bus at the same stop. Sometimes my father would pick us up there, then we would get to ride home. This day, we were hoping for a ride because it was raining.

Because the junior high school is on the corner, this intersection was different from most. The lights went red for all four streets entering the intersection so that pedestrians could cross diagonally across the street. The cross walks were even marked that way.

The light changed and we started across. I was on the far right of the group. One of my friends suddenly shouted, "Watch out!" I stopped and turned to see what she was shouting at. Good thing too, or I would have stepped right in front of the car that jumped the light. Instead it hit me a glancing blow with the front right bumper.

Books flying everywhere, I landed flat on my butt in a puddle. Oh the indignity!

My friends rushed over. "Are you all right?" they asked anxiously. I answered with the first thought that popped into my head. "I don't have to be in the gym show!" I exclaimed. "She must have hit her head," I heard them whisper. "No," I insisted. "This is great! I don't have to be in the gym show!"

Cops gathered me up and put me in their car. I guess either they didn't know what they were doing, or they could tell I wasn't seriously hurt, because they asked where I wanted to go. "Home, I guess," I responded. What did I know. I don't get hit by cars every day. I didn't know the drill. I was in this bizarre kind of out of the body fog. Besides thinking about not being in the gym show, I recall thinking, "I just got hit by a car." And being the rational robot in an emergency, person I usually am, I also recall asking about witnesses.

The cops asked for my address, which I gave them and we headed off - without the sirens to my great disappointment. Hey, I got hit by a car. Don't I at least rate a few sirens.

Unbeknownst to me, my friends had called my mother. As we were driving up the road, I saw her in our neighbor's car heading toward the scene of the crime. "Hey that's my Mom," I told the cops. The cops did a u-ey, but so did our neighbor. Now we were each going in the opposite direction again. They don't write scenes better than this for the movies. Finally the cops and our neighbor found a place to stop and my mother joined me in the cop car. We took off for the emergency room finally. Hey - I could have been dying back there for all they knew.

After a few hours of fooling around in the emergency room - I got to ride in a wheel chair at least. I learned I had contusions, abrasions and lacerations - sounds so much better than cuts scrapes and bruises - and strained ligaments in my knee.

We never heard from the person who hit me from Friday night until Monday night. She never called to see if I was alive or dead. My father went down to get the accident report and despite the fact that all my friends and an independent witness told them the woman drove through the light, the police had the accident down as my fault. A woman jumps a four way stop to hit a student who has just gotten off a big yellow school bus, but it's the student's fault. I don't get it.

When the woman finally called Monday night, she asked for the name of my father's insurance company. Needless to say, my father was puzzled. His car was nowhere near the scene. Why would she require our insurance information? He asked. "Because I have damages to my car!" the woman answered indignantly. She hits a pedestrian in a crosswalk, but she expects to collect for damages to her car. Boggles my mind what goes through other people's minds. I didn't even break a leg - what could she have anyway, a few scuff marks? And if she stopped at the light like she was supposed to, she wouldn't have any damages at all. Duh!

The addendum to all this is that my gym teacher said, "Leave it to you to go to extremes to get out of the gym show." The police wouldn't change the report. We settled out of court for the price of the doctor's bills and a color TV set.

Other people get millions because they were stupid enough to drive with a hot cup of coffee wedged between their thighs. I get a TV set for getting hit by a car in a crosswalk while minding my own business. Like I said - life in the wrong lane. But I did get out of the gym show.

Quote of the Day: "The

Quote of the Day: "The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play." - Arnold Toynbee

I'm baaaaack! No, not from the dead, but from the seriously bitten by the latest bug to be going around. Ugh! Did ya miss me? <g>

This whatever it is bug has been circulating around where I work. It's terrible. Everyone has caught it. They need to close the whole place for a week and fumigate or something. Yesterday, I was talking to a co-worker, who's about a day behind me in the recovery department, and he said he went to the doctor. Nodding the whole time, the doctor listened to his list of symptoms - scratchy cough, aches and pains, bad headache (the worst!), horrible metallic taste in his mouth, loss of appetite - then confirmed, "Something going around." He'd obviously heard that same list of symptoms far too many times, so I guess it not just a Winebow company thing. If you're sick and you have those symptoms, you've got it. Welcome to the club, we miserable ones do love our company. Ibuprofen anyone?

At least my cats were happy. They had a warm body to lay on for three solid days and nights. Of course they had to move when I shifted position. They weren't happy about that, but I don't think they were looking this particular gift horse in the mouth.

I'm looking for a ray of sunshine here ... the one good thing about this is a total loss of appetite. I want to eat. I made chicken soup. I made noodles with butter. Two spoonfuls and that's it. I'm done. The only thing I've been able to manage is rice pudding. I had a craving for it and figured, what the heck, I'm not eating anything else. Even had to force that down, but it didn't take as much effort. Now you know I'm sick, if I have to force down rice pudding. I just love rice pudding. Maybe I'll lose some weight if my appetite stays away a bit longer.

I've been trying to get caught up with some of my Blog reading, so far the only two I've managed are Meryl Yourish and Burningbird. The above quote is a hat tip to BB for her essay on fun. It's great - check it out! I loved the bit about the red Doberman - really cute!

Seems many bloggers are talking about fun these days - that and TubCat (I'm not going to go there! Poor kitty). Some years ago someone asked me what I like to do for fun. I told her that I consider anything that's not work -fun. I further explained that my definition of work is anything I don't want to do. So from that you can conclude that - in my world, anyway - work = what I don't want to do and fun = anything I do want to do.

I've always held, however that work and fun are not mutually exclusive. In fact throwing in a little fun with an unpleasant chore can make it seem a lot less unpleasant. I like my current job. In fact, I love what I'm doing. I'm a web designer for the aforementioned Winebow. It's always fun. But the people I work with make it even more fun. They're a great bunch and we all get along for the most part. Someone is always teasing and the teasee takes it in stride. Someone always has a joke to pass around. Someone will invariably do something silly. I think that's the key. We all seem to have a large silly quotient and we're not embarrassed to display it.

I think far too many adults feel it's no longer okay for them to be silly. They suppress their natural silliness and that's not healthy. I say we need a National Silliness Day. Perhaps instead of having April Fools Day be a day that you make someone else a fool, lets proclaim this April Fools Day - be a fool yourself day. Go ahead let your hair down. Set your inner child free and do something silly. Don't wait for April Fools Day - do it today!

Quote du Jour: ""Don't worry

Quote du Jour: ""Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." - Charles Schulz

I'm sick, and I hate being sick. I have too many things to do to be nursing a cold or whatever this bug is I've got. It's been going around work, but in the other part of the building from where I work. I've been carefully avoiding going to that part of the building. I've been taking Echinacea and vitamin C. I've been resisting it since before Christmas, but it's finally caught up with me.

I had an annoying tickle type cough all day Friday, and by the time I went to bed, it was your garden variety full blown cough. Yesterday I woke up with a stuffed nose, aches and pains, and of course the cough. I know that's more information than you wished I'd shared with you, but at least you can't catch my cold from reading my Blog. Did I say, I hate being sick?

I'm just going to do a genuine ramble here, but after all that's what it says in the header isn't it? I saw that BurningBird mentioned my Blog in her Blog. And gave me a link! Thanks for the Blogpliments! We love Blogpliments! ::Taking a bow::

I love this whole Blog culture. It reminds me of the olden days - way back in 1995 <g> when I first had access to the web. I've had internet access through Prodigy since 1988, migrated over to Genie along with my online friends, then I had AOL for awhile. I got it for free because, I was working with one of their content providers - On Computers radio. At the time AOL didn't provide web space - not much of a browser either, so I signed on with a local ISP and built a home on the web.

One of the things I really enjoyed about surfing the web in the good old days <g> before the commercial sites seemed to take over, was all the personal sites people put up. They weren't slick. They often had ugly backgrounds (my own site included ::shudder::). And often the content was nothing more than links to other sites. But we were pioneers. Moonwalkers in cyberspace. Voyagers on a strange journey.

We came together and formed communities much like the Bloggers are doing today. We communicated. We exchanged ideas and we learned more about other cultures than we could ever learn in a life time off line. Bloggers are renewing that sense of community and I rejoice in it. Bloggers of the World Unite! (have to check Blogstickers and see if that's been taken)

Hey if you are seriously into Googlewhacking - check this out. It's a neat little form called Auto-Whack that checks to see if the word is in the dictionary before sending it to Google. You also get a score if you get a googlewhack ... With a Nick Nack Googlewhack give a dog a bone, this old man came rolling home (see web site for an explanation of why I'm singing this song <g> -- Still googlewhack-impaired in NJ.

Quote du Jour: "Everything in

Quote du Jour: "Everything in moderation; nothing in excess." - ???

I don't know who authored the above quote. I looked in Bartletts, but I couldn't find it. If you know, tell me. If not - I'm claiming it.

It pretty much sums up my philosophy and outlook on life. Excesses - particularly fanaticism of any kind - really bother me. I can't really understand the mind set that takes people that far into any belief or activity.

A few years ago I got myself involved in Highlander fandom. I watched the TV series, and liked it very much. I came into it in the second season, so I went searching through the internet to find out what had happened in the first season.

During my search, I joined a discussion list. Through the list I made friends - as will happen when you participate in a list discussion. When several of those friends persuaded me to go to Syndicon '97 - a Highlander/Forever Knight convention, I went to meet them. But I went with great trepidation.

I had seen film clips taken at Star Trek conventions, and I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the weekend with a bunch of people who had a very loose grip on reality.

Now, don't get me wrong. It's okay, even recommended, to take a short trip to Fantasy Land on occasion, but you need to remember where reality is, so you can come back home when you're through.

To make matters worse, at a Highlander convention, these people are all carrying swords! Lord only knows what happens at Buffy tVS cons. I can guess, though, because Forever Knight was a show about vampires, and so there were a number of people running around Syndicon wearing fangs. It was the ones with the fangs ... and the swords that really worried me.

You can tell, as you observe these people, which ones are just having fun and which ones have gone over the edge. There were a few too many over the edge for my comfort zone.

I'm a people watcher so I did a lot of observing that weekend. I listened to people who really believed that they had some kind of psychic connection with the actors or the characters - then I took a few steps back from them. I just found it difficult to do the proverbial, "walk a mile in my shoes," with those people. I didn't even want to share airspace with them. What if it's catching?

There are all kinds of fanatics out there. Health nuts. Religious fanatics. Sports fans. There are sports fans and then there are sports fans of the in-your-face variety. You know the kind. The ones with their faces painted in team colors. I read about a Denver Broncos fan who painted his house blue and orange! Glad I'm not his neighbor.

Health nuts will gaze at your Boston Creme donut and coffee with disdain. They will tell you ad nauseum how bad all that caffeine, processed flour and refined sugar are for you. The avid diet folks will ramble on about calories or Weight Watcher points. Get away from me. If I want my donut, I'm going to eat my donut. Don't you people ever eat a snack? Do you know what you're missing

My diet does not consist of mainly donuts - so get out of my face. I strive for balance. For every donut I eat, I have some veggies or a banana. If I eat a salad with balsamic vinegar and a little olive oil, I get to eat a cookie. Balance - that's what it's all about - balance.

Life should have balance. One third mental food, one third physical food and one third spiritual food. One half fun. One half work. Some sunshine. Some rain. A little snow. Pleasure and pain - because pain makes the pleasure half again as pleasurable. Despair is necessary so that we can appreciate the joy.

All in all, life's too short to skip dessert. Go ahead, eat the dessert. Just make sure you eat your veggies as well.

Oops ... almost forgot. I wanted to mention that I'm Googlewhack impaired. The best I can do is two entries. It's really bizarre the weird combinations of words people will mention on a web page. I think we need a reverse Googlewhack category. To get a reverse Googlewhack (that's 3 mentions of the word Googlewhack <g>) you have to put in two really weird words and see how many hits you get instead of how few hits come up. How many people have the kind of minds that will combine these two words ... inquiring minds want to know. Can you reverse Googlewhack? I'm issuing a challenge.