Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Holiday Planning Joy

This   Read all the way to the end!

Need to start changing my vocabulary.

Note: Because it is inadvisable to announce when one is going on holiday (not vacation, the kid says, for this location we must now say holiday) this will show for a while because it is so funny and then disappear.

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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Joy - Week 34


Not the best photo - was actually taken at a stop light about to change with my phone.  

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Saturday, August 25, 2012

Beautiful Words

Reading a book by someone who writes beautifully. That's the only way to describe it. And I'm not an English major so I don't know all the real things to say about it. The editorial reviews on the website manage to say it.

I'm only on page 84 and have found several things I want to make note of, have been savoring.  Bits of truth. This made me stop breathing.

So I renamed myself Ari.
If I switched the letter, my name would be Air.
I thought it might be a great thing to be the air.
I could be something and nothing at the same time. I could be necessary and also invisible. Everyone would need me and no one would be able to see me. 

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Friday, August 24, 2012

Joy - Week 33

Serendipity.

Finding yourself behind your kid at at stop light while running errands, he waves, following him to the next parking lot, chatting and then going for a quick lunch.





BTW   It was a great conversation about being crazy people.  Hopefully helpful. Hopefully hopeful.

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"I hate everything"

A text I received from my kid late last night after a deadline passed.

We are very similar, the kid and I. He once wondered why I do the job I do because, as he said, "You hate people."

I'm reading a book and there is a section about pockets of genius. How that happens. What fosters it. The author says the United States is good at fostering pockets of sports start, sports talent. We start when kids are young, look for it, nurse it, raise it, celebrate it. What happens when we celebrate it so much that we create an industry and a reverence so strong that lines are crossed. Is it a failing of the individual or the society? And we know that the individual is now backed by a large team of people who depend on that individual to make their living. To keep them in the spotlight. To give them some sort of fame and validation. What and how many lines are crossed?  Is this about not only our love of sport but our love of fame?

Who knows.

And then we tear them down. We tear down everyone. That's fun, too. Not saying or even guessing the truth in the situation, not sure anyone does now. Or wants to.

That was part of the "I hate everything," too.

The causalities are the regular people. Who ride a bike and enjoy events at a stadium named for a cause and a dream. Are those things now invalidated because of a failure of a human. We are all human, we all fail. Most of us just do it on a smaller stage.

Yes I'm rambling. I will probably come back to this and add more or change some things. I'm rambling as a parent of an adult child and as a person who has problems with her own validity.

And back to the author of the book. He has his own troubles - read the comments. How much of this work is now invalid. Some of it is research I've read about elsewhere.  Did he do it for the fame and recognition in his community?  Yes, issues with a part of our culture as a whole, not just one aspect, sports.

Do I see this  in my workplace, maybe.

Too much thinking. Getting on with my everyday insignificant life.  She says believing more than ever that it may just be the insignificant that is the truly significant.

As in this - a couple of my favorite quotes:

Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.  Blaise Pascal
  (To be a librarian a similar quote is attributed to someone else.)

Not everything that counts can be measured. Not everything that can be measured counts.   Albert Einstein


Thursday, August 23, 2012

Idea for a Book List

50 Shades of being grateful for self checkout

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Getting Back to the Create stuff


This project or experiment or just playing around was inspired by two things. The Create online class suggests using stuff you have around.  The other was a project on layers. Paint, draw or whatever a color or design on paper, leave it be, then day by day add 3 - 5 more layers. 

One day at work I saw several empty rolls of packing tape left around and grabbed them thinking there might be some thing to do with them.  Making bracelets you really wouldn't wear? Art in the round? They sat at home for a while longer. 


I also had some of this in the basement and all kinds of papers. 


The results of the first layer.   Yes, the lighting in the craft room is not good at night for photos with a phone camera with no flash.


Torn pages from I believe a Chinese paperback romance novel.  


 Magazine ad pages with interesting patterns and colors.


Layered hot pink tissue paper squares.



Strips of scrapbook page papers in variegated primary colors in straight lines this time.




More scrapbook papers with an old fashioned wallpaper look. 


Now, eventually, on to other layers of all types. Hopefully with things I find.  Adding some yarn, fabric, lace, beads . . . . . . .

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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Lovely Movie

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Simple.  Thoughtful. And the filming - the pace, music, and the photography - all tie in to those themes. Must watch all the extras. Some of the not included scenes are most wonderful, too.

Will be watching it several more times before I send it back.

Sadly, a couple other small movies I wanted to see have come and gone. So it will be library DVDs to the rescue again.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Joy - Week 33




School Supplies.
I love school supplies. Markers. Crayons. Notebooks. And when they are so cheap!!!  I always have to get something.

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Tuesday, August 07, 2012

I'm Feeling Kinda Sleazy

Not because of the reading. All the 50 shades and such.

I call it doing research. I heard a lecture, after all.  ;)

Yes! Yes!    Eh?    It's getting tedious.

It's because of all the proud posts about voting today. The wearing of the stickers.

I voted.  I voted against the candidate of my choice.

It is what it is.

Monday, August 06, 2012

Joy - Week 32

Sometimes staying up late has some advantages. I found a live feed from NASA and watched the Mars landing.

Heard them relay the info that all was working. Step by step.

Photos from Mars.  How cool is that. In real time.

Technology for good.  Not just the getting there, getting to the place where you can just log on and see it.




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Sunday, August 05, 2012

Joy - Week 31

Fresh Air!!!

I was thinking that the only difference between this summer and winter is I don't freak out when I have to drive. No slipping and sliding. I stay in. I eat too much. I don't feel like doing anything. I don't walk.

There was a morning this week when I drove with the windows open just to feel the air. It was a bit cooler and fresher. It was wonderful.

And this, actually in the next week, I walked this morning. It was about 65.  I didn't do the 3 1/2 to 4 miles I was up to, more like 2. But it was great.

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