Do you ever think about all the different things going on around us?
Every person with a whole entire life of things you know nothing about!
Today I learned about something I never knew existed.
It is called Steampunk and here is how the Urban Dictionary defines it:
1. steampunk
Steampunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction, usually set in an anachronistic Victorian or quasi-Victorian alternate history setting. It could be described by the slogan "What the past would look like if the future had happened sooner." It includes fiction with science fiction, fantasy or horror themes.
And if the term 'speculative fiction' is new to you as it was to me, here is a definition of this:
"Speculative literature is a catch-all term meant to inclusively span the breadth of fantastic literature, encompassing literature ranging from hard science fiction to epic fantasy to ghost stories to horror to folk and fairy tales to slipstream to magical realism to modern myth-making -- and more."
Speculative Literature Foundation
HOW COOL IS THIS????
And I heard about this on a podcast of the How Stuff Works Website
I LOVE THOSE SHOWS!!!!!!!! They are awesome!
If you want to expand your world go check it out!!!
When I couldn't listen to radio streaming on my computer at work I started exploring podcasting to my ipod. CATHY! I am finally using the ipod you gave me!!!!! lol
Podcasts are free They are fascinating You can learn about anything you can imagine. For me it is like sitting around the cafe table at Starbucks and eavesdropping on all kinds of interesting people while I do my boring accounting work!
Another show I like is 'How Much Do We Love..." which is just a lot of fun. And one of the things they like to talk about are "Extras in the movie of your life" These are people whom you encounter during your life. These are not people you really know well. Here are some of mine: My neighbors. I do not know their names nor would I recognize them in the store. Here is what I know about them. They put their trash cans out before we do. Every week. No matter how early we do it, they do it first. It is like THEY KNOW! Also they line them up in a special order and then my sister is compelled to mirror the order so we look like the two most OCD houses on the street. One of the guys also sweeps the driveway every morning and washes his car every sunday morning even if he has to do it IN THE GARAGE because it is raining.
Another extra is the gal who is always working at the Jack in the Box near where I get on the freeway. I always grab a soda on the way to work (YES EVEN AT 5:30am) and she knows how I like my soda: Extra Ice. LOTS OF ICE EVEN IF IT IS SNOWING OUTSIDE!! We are 'friends' of a sort! There is the usher at church who is always so friendly. There is the gas station guy who sometimes gives my sister a free lottery ticket (I think he likes her). These are people we do not 'know' yet they are an everyday part of our lives.
Who are the Extras in the Movie of Your Life??? I want to know!!!
So here is the thing. Life is draining. It is exhausting. It is boring and it can become colorless. There are crappy things happening to all of us. Furfriends and family leaving us. Children who are hurting. Marriages struggling. Jobs that are uncertain.
Don't forget to look up and around.
There are SO MANY amazing things going on out there!
Discover something new!
GO FOR IT!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Thangiving In GeeezLand
Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving
Mine started very early and very cold with a 5K Turkey Trot
Chandra and I arrived early to get ready and set to go I was SO JEALOUS of this gal with a turkey hat! It looked like the turkey was stuck on her head. It was awesome!
As you can see we were situated toward the back of the pack with the people who brought their dogs. In strollers.
We were numbers 491 and 492. We were in the section of people who didn't care weren't rabidly serious.
By the time we got to the first incline the guy who came in first passed us going the other way
We Yelled "SHOW OFF" at him
We had to make a potty stop partway along which made us lose quite a lot of time.
Therefore we cut a few corners.
So our time over the finish line is ambiguous. But I am going to claim the 57 minutes and 13 seconds as my new best time.
Then I went home, took a shower (cuz I was all sweaty like) and fell back into bed and slept for a few hours.
Then I got up and cleaned the house and started cooking
This is the holiday where divorce has reduced our numbers to mostly the old folks. This happened a few years ago also and so I decided to cook something special: Squash soup with kale. The looks I got. I am pretty sure they suspected me of trying to kill them.
Last year the child migration to their fathers took place over Christmas and so I didn't cook (putting the celebration off by a week until they migrated here) and my parents and grandma went out to eat. They didn't tell me how horrible this was, I can just tell. I couldn't do this to them again and so I cooked (my sister was working).
But I made a traditional menu. Nothing too imaginative.
That is my culinary heritage. Meat Starch Vegetable DON'T GET ALL FANCY
On the rare occasion when my mom was feeling really fancy she would make jello and float a pear half in it.
It worries them that I don't eat meat. It worried them that I wouldn't have anything to eat at Thanksgiving. It worries them that doing yoga several times a week will turn me into a Buddhist. They also were anti-karate when I was a kid. I lot of worry about religious brainwashing. One day you achieve Downward Dog the next you have shaved your head and become the Dali Lama.
In years gone by I have tried to make the day special with meaningful little things like going around the table and saying something we were thankful for or writing what we were thankful for on a cutout of a leaf and taping it to a tree I had painted on the living room window. But these things never go over well. It is because sentiment has been bred out of us. We are stoic German robots. Don't try to get all creative and stuff. Because we will not have it!
I spent quite some time in the morning trying to heat up the downstairs so my parents wouldn't freeze. I could not figure out the thermostat. Later when I admitted this my father and son took a look. Turns out it was broken. Also they discovered several lamps that were broken. In my universe if we can't figure something out we just do without it. We will usually try to fix it with a hot glue gun before giving up altogether. I think this really worries my dad, lol. Like he has two teenagers out living on their own instead of two middle aged old ladies.
Someday......maybe..... I will be the matriarch of this family. I will teach all the little ones the secrets of hospitality and of hosting a generous and beautiful holiday. I hope to pull out all my linens and china and all the interesting recipes and establish traditions that do not fall flat. We will not have families broken by divorce.
And I will be Queen
It could happen.
Mine started very early and very cold with a 5K Turkey Trot
As you can see we were situated toward the back of the pack with the people who brought their dogs. In strollers.
By the time we got to the first incline the guy who came in first passed us going the other way
We Yelled "SHOW OFF" at him
We had to make a potty stop partway along which made us lose quite a lot of time.
Therefore we cut a few corners.
So our time over the finish line is ambiguous. But I am going to claim the 57 minutes and 13 seconds as my new best time.
Then I got up and cleaned the house and started cooking
This is the holiday where divorce has reduced our numbers to mostly the old folks. This happened a few years ago also and so I decided to cook something special: Squash soup with kale. The looks I got. I am pretty sure they suspected me of trying to kill them.
Last year the child migration to their fathers took place over Christmas and so I didn't cook (putting the celebration off by a week until they migrated here) and my parents and grandma went out to eat. They didn't tell me how horrible this was, I can just tell. I couldn't do this to them again and so I cooked (my sister was working).
But I made a traditional menu. Nothing too imaginative.
That is my culinary heritage. Meat Starch Vegetable DON'T GET ALL FANCY
On the rare occasion when my mom was feeling really fancy she would make jello and float a pear half in it.
It worries them that I don't eat meat. It worried them that I wouldn't have anything to eat at Thanksgiving. It worries them that doing yoga several times a week will turn me into a Buddhist. They also were anti-karate when I was a kid. I lot of worry about religious brainwashing. One day you achieve Downward Dog the next you have shaved your head and become the Dali Lama.
In years gone by I have tried to make the day special with meaningful little things like going around the table and saying something we were thankful for or writing what we were thankful for on a cutout of a leaf and taping it to a tree I had painted on the living room window. But these things never go over well. It is because sentiment has been bred out of us. We are stoic German robots. Don't try to get all creative and stuff. Because we will not have it!
I spent quite some time in the morning trying to heat up the downstairs so my parents wouldn't freeze. I could not figure out the thermostat. Later when I admitted this my father and son took a look. Turns out it was broken. Also they discovered several lamps that were broken. In my universe if we can't figure something out we just do without it. We will usually try to fix it with a hot glue gun before giving up altogether. I think this really worries my dad, lol. Like he has two teenagers out living on their own instead of two middle aged old ladies.
Someday......maybe..... I will be the matriarch of this family. I will teach all the little ones the secrets of hospitality and of hosting a generous and beautiful holiday. I hope to pull out all my linens and china and all the interesting recipes and establish traditions that do not fall flat. We will not have families broken by divorce.
And I will be Queen
It could happen.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
I Am Baaaack!
Hello Peeps!
I thought I had better check in here and see what you are all up to these days.
As you can see from the blog, I am downsizing.
There is less of me and there is less extra stuff on the blog.
I am going through a weird phase.
I can't really figure it out myself. I guess I will just see where I go.
For now let's talk about my college career.
In a few weeks I will have finished all the 30 units I needed two years ago to transfer to Cal State Bakersfield.
This is shocking to me. At the beginning of this journey it looked so unlikely I would ever get here that I am not sure now what to do about it.
I love school so I know I will keep going regardless of the goal
But do I really want to transfer and start accruing really serious debt?
Do I really want to be an accountant after all?
I feel like I have been a grown up all my life. Even as I child I was always so responsible.
Is that where I want to go as things are winding down?
Or shall I look in a different direction.....
Maybe I can count beans for a living until I die but maybe I can re-direct my energy into something that seems more interesting.
I don't know. I feel like I need to know now. Right now. Last month. What is my plan? What are the goals? What comes next and next and next after that?
And when do I live in all of this? Do I ever take a vacation? Do I ever travel?
Maybe I could be a writer.
Maybe I could pursue some actual education toward that.
Why is it that some of us are compelled to put our thoughts out there for everyone to see and feel and hear. Why do I get satisfaction from taking a thought and expressing it in letters and words and sentences and concepts and abstractions.
Why do I like to play with words.
What is it that I have to say?
What can I contribute.
These are deep thoughts on a quiet night. They are banging around in my head.
And I will send this off to you--- whomever you are. People I know. People I do not know.
And the funny thing is that the joyful part is in putting it down and sending it out regardless of what happens after that.
Is there hope for me?
I thought I had better check in here and see what you are all up to these days.
As you can see from the blog, I am downsizing.
There is less of me and there is less extra stuff on the blog.
I am going through a weird phase.
I can't really figure it out myself. I guess I will just see where I go.
For now let's talk about my college career.
In a few weeks I will have finished all the 30 units I needed two years ago to transfer to Cal State Bakersfield.
This is shocking to me. At the beginning of this journey it looked so unlikely I would ever get here that I am not sure now what to do about it.
I love school so I know I will keep going regardless of the goal
But do I really want to transfer and start accruing really serious debt?
Do I really want to be an accountant after all?
I feel like I have been a grown up all my life. Even as I child I was always so responsible.
Is that where I want to go as things are winding down?
Or shall I look in a different direction.....
Maybe I can count beans for a living until I die but maybe I can re-direct my energy into something that seems more interesting.
I don't know. I feel like I need to know now. Right now. Last month. What is my plan? What are the goals? What comes next and next and next after that?
And when do I live in all of this? Do I ever take a vacation? Do I ever travel?
Maybe I could be a writer.
Maybe I could pursue some actual education toward that.
Why is it that some of us are compelled to put our thoughts out there for everyone to see and feel and hear. Why do I get satisfaction from taking a thought and expressing it in letters and words and sentences and concepts and abstractions.
Why do I like to play with words.
What is it that I have to say?
What can I contribute.
These are deep thoughts on a quiet night. They are banging around in my head.
And I will send this off to you--- whomever you are. People I know. People I do not know.
And the funny thing is that the joyful part is in putting it down and sending it out regardless of what happens after that.
Is there hope for me?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)