The Imagined Village

I know I posted this song before...but the video was the one with the space movie clips. This has animation which is really cool. I like this group a lot.

The Sunday Morning Muse, June 26, 2011

It's a beautiful Sunday morning in June. I read something this week...and I'll have to paraphrase, but it was something like, if everyone would just sit and do nothing, 80 percent of the world's problems would be solved.

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Today would be a good day to do that. But then again you could always weed. Weeding has become my new hobby. I have a foot problem at the moment...stretched a ligament or tendon or some such thing and now I'm limited somewhat. Weeding is a way to sit my butt down and still make use of my time other than surf Ebay. (Though I do have to check on this Floxite mirror I bid on. More later.)

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Take care of your feet, and they will take you everywhere you want to go, my dad used to say. Good advice. I've traded sexy ankle strap wedgies for orthotics and sensible shoes for now, and I admit, I'm feeling quite the middle aged biddy because of it. I take comfort in that I am not alone. More people my age are reaching for the cheater glasses, too.

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Which brings me back to the Floxite mirror. This thing isn't your mother's Conair thing with purplish natural light and bulbs around it. It is a serious magnifying mirror. You can actually see every pore on your face. This is not always a good thing. The wrinkles and blemishes are close and up front, too. It is actually quite startling the first time you look into it. I have a couple of different mirrors to change out from the base that magnify even more. I think doctors use these mirrors for people when they first get contacts.

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But I like this mirror. It's rather humbling at first. But you get beyond that and the practical uses are endless. I've dug stuff out of my eye no one else could see. I've put on make up perfectly. Realized just how bad some cheap makeup was... that looked fine from the bathroom mirror.

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Anyhow, mine broke and I tried to fix it. The arm broke in two at the elbow, and I stuck a golf tee in the hole, then a chopstick, and other things in it and wrapped it in electrical tape, but it still was top heavy and broke. So this bid is important.

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But for now, back to weeding.

A Rant for Tonight

Bubble headed bleach blondes in red dresses are certainly not in short supply at Fox News. My streak continues. I have walked into a room when Fox is on six times in a row now and there was a Barbie or a Fembot front and center. In bright red.

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At some point the network will ban clothes on women all together. It will come to that eventually.

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Also... Rolling Stone this month has a great expose on Fox and Roger Ailes. You could never read the whole thing it is so long, but scanning it will give you great insight as to how indoctrinated their talking points are, spread throughout the day. Republican talking points....first light hearted with happy talk on the morning show...sprinkled as very pointed questions in the news...and on the endless talking head loop throughout the day and night to ensure the branding of them into the public awareness. Then add in the fear factor and you have your very own manufactured outrage.

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I can't be in the same room with Fox for longer than six seconds without the gag reflex kicking in and getting totally ticked off over something. I watched the now famous visit from Jon Stewart on the Chris Wallace show online and that is the longest I have watched anything on Fox ever. Stewart had to really dumb down some concepts to get to Wallace's level. This isn't a partisan bias. It is an intellectual bias. Good comedy takes a good brain. Mark Twain and Will Rogers. Satirists have the difficult job of not only understanding the political stuff, but ferreting out the incongruous, and making it palatable to the masses. Maybe even funny. Chris doesn't get that. He hates South Park. I see why. Jon Stewart "gets" that Wallace is lacking what it takes to appreciate that type of humor.

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He's not a bad guy, Wallace. Certainly Hannity and Beck and the rest of the really crazy ones have their agendas and Chris is trying to do a decent job. But he reminds me of the kid who got his lunch stolen or would get wedgies at school. Now he is grown up and he has to prove himself somehow. With the ever watchful eye of Ailes always upon him....

A Trip to the Dentist

I don't know how I got through all those dentist visits as a child. Growing up I was a chocolate freak and ate a lot of sugary stuff and drank Tang. My teeth suffered for it. I have those huge silvery fillings in the back, and I recall getting at least three root canals, and I even had some kind of gum surgery which I now find was unnecessary.
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At the time it was very necessary. Probably because my old dentist was in cahoots with a gum doc who was starting out. But that's another story.

All in all, I don't have dentures yet, so I'm doing okay.
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Now as an adult, I have this anxiety over dentist trips that I didn't have as a kid, even with all the bad stuff I went through. My new dentist is the silent type which makes it worse. I would be much happier if he had a little commentator in him for reassurance.
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My ideal scenario is this: Oh...things are going well...a little chip here, a little drill noise there....suction...doing good... I'm 30 percent done now...relax I will let you spit in 15 seconds and we will go on to part two.
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Okay, here's a kleenex, let's do this. I'm going to put this gunk in and smooth it up a bit...there...that's great. You are wonderful. Just hold on...pay no attention to that beeping sound it is not a heart monitor. It will stop in a few seconds and you can spit again.
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Great. Here's another kleenex. Relax. Catch your breath, I'm 90 percent done...

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You get the picture. But the scenario played out like this:
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I ask him a question before he starts. What did you think of the US Open?
I lean back he pries open my mouth, and says something like, that young Rory kid did really well.
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Crickets chirping.
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Nothing else. I realize I'm on my own. I start replaying pleasant moments of my life. I try counting backwards from 100. I try to name all 50 states.
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What feels like 20 minutes later... he says, "suction please."
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That's it. I'm flailing my arms, my whole life is passing before me. I swear I will drown or choke or freak out or just die right there, and just then he says "you can rinse." I ask if I can have vodka in the water.
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No laugh. Probably heard that before.

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I want to ask...how far done are we? Should I have gone to a "sleep" dentist? I resign myself to clutching the chair arms and bearing down to the bitter end.
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Afterward, I did ask, "How did I compare on the anxiety scale with other patients? Should I bring Valium next time?" He says there are far worse. He has had people call from the bar down the street, wanting an appointment RIGHT NOW because they are drunk enough to do it. Had to get the courage up.
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Perhaps next time.

Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

This song takes me way back. I played this album over and over again. It came out earlier but I bought it back when I was in 7th Grade.

The Sunday Morning Muse, June 19, 2011

Father's Day. No doubt people are out there picnicking and golfing and buying ties and spending time with dad. In the midst of the celebrating and eating and giving of gifts and stuff, be sure to take time to do just one thing.

Talk with your dad. Have a conversation. Ask him questions, listen to the answers.

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You don't have to agree with him. Just listen.

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My generation is losing fathers very quickly. The World War II vets are disappearing along with their stories. I regret I didn't talk to him more about that time in his life. Maybe because he didn't volunteer the information, and never dwelled in the past much. I should have asked anyway.

What Happened to the Economy...in two minutes.

Unspoken Truths

Wow this was a hard read today. Christopher Hitchens has lost his voice. In the latest Vanity Fair he writes about his feelings on this...as his illness progresses. I made it as far as the pig with the wooden leg and started to cry.

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He is listening to Leonard Cohen (If It be Your Will) and quoting T.S.Eliot's Prufrock. (sigh)

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As I read his thoughts, I had to keep stopping. I kept thinking of many things at once. How unfair it is that people get cancer and suffer, how I'll miss his wit and intellect when he is gone, how I hate saying that because he isn't gone yet, how I miss my dad who died from cancer.

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How I love my own voice and how great it was that for many years I was able to use it to the best of my ability working in radio. How I love to sing! Not that I was that great...but I loved to do it... the blues doesn't come from you...it comes through you!

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How I took Voice Production courses in college and loved them so much that I took more and more of them, and did an independent study in it, working with freshmen in "voice labs," which were really just study periods for voice students, but I learned so much about how to use my voice and help others use theirs. I love that. I even thought about going further.... maybe a Master's or Doctorate in Communications like my professor. She had my ideal job. But I didn't do it.

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A different path taken, but voice work none the less. And I had a lot of fun doing what I did do so far in life.

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And I think, what if I couldn't speak anymore?

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He says, find your own voice.

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I totally understand.

Quick Hits Today

This guy's music is really cool. Reminds me of Tom Waits. Gill Landry. Found him today on Pandora. Can't figure a way to get his song on here from the YouTube link yet... so just go there and listen. I like this song, Mexico. Haven't heard much else yet.

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Michele Bachmann. The candidate to vote for if you think Sarah Palin is too intellectual for you. (I wish I had thought of that line.)

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‎"That's why people need to continue to go to the town halls, continue to melt the phone lines of their liberal members of Congress, and let them know, under no certain circumstances will I give the government control over my body and my health care decisions." -Rep. Michele Bachmann-a pro-lifer who completely missed the irony of using the same slogan as the pro-choice movement in arguing against health care reform.

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I Did, I Did, I Did

The Sunday Morning Muse, June 12, 2011

I am fascinated by space, and have been my whole life. I read a lot of sci-fi as a kid and was influenced by Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov and others. Mostly I read "compilations" that include many different stories by various authors (Dangerous Visions comes to mind) and was a big X-Files fan way back when, before the series got too strange even for me. I was no trekkie, but I did enjoy Star Trek. Capt. Kirk was a great character...handsome, sexy, funny, and in command. And I loved watching Cosmos with Carl Sagan. I read the book "Contact" way before the movie came out...and saw the movie. Carl died so young....62. Jodie Foster is such a great actress.
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All that has led me to be a big lover of the space program. Not just the romance of it...but the search for answers. So much more of our total dollars on this planet should go to exploration. It is our only hope as a species, and there is so much to learn out there about the universe. I am willing to bet 99 percent of the people on this planet, living right now, don't know that Voyager is out there... way past PLUTO if you can imagine, still sending back information. It blows my mind. It was launched in the late 70's.
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Insert Weiner Joke Here

I'm tired of hearing about Anthony Weiner's sex-ting problem on the news, and I certainly am not clicking on the headline MARK FOLEY ON WEINER on Yahoo. The reporters are having too much fun with this. Joke's over. Teenage boys are the only ones still snickering. The ones who like Beavis and Butthead.

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I'm declaring this a WEINER free Zone.

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Let's move onward.

Hmmm Days Go By

So much to do, and the heat is getting to me. I like a good spring...but ours was a lot of rain, then BOOM hotter than Hell.

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And Summer Solstice is getting closer. I hate to see that happen, because the days shorten. It's the difference between travelling hopefully and arriving. I wait all winter for long days...with sun!

I want it to last and last.

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This old thermometer is in the greenhouse. I don't know if it is 90, 112 somewhere in between.

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The squirrel is a bit defeated by the hot weather lately too...

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Not a lot of flowers in bloom so I took pictures of these rocks at a friend's house. It's a great grouping.

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Stone Cold Sober

The Sunday Morning Muse, June 5, 2011

I discovered what the "liquid" option does in PhotoShop. It's like playing with oil paint, but having someone else do the hard part...like painting the whole picture...and you getting to fiddle with the details or change it wildly and become your own Dali or Warhol.-

You have to click on the painting to appreciate the painterly-ness of it. I took the photo yesterday paying special attention to light...and then liquified it and was able to use a "brush" and paint it up a

bit.

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I really had fun messing with a pile of rocks:

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I put faces, bats, cats, witches, all kinds of stuff in there...and moved the

colors around to take away the hardness of the rocks. Make them malleable. The result doesn't even matter. I had fun with it.

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Here's another iris photo I messed with....

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Speaking of Fairness

I suppose life just isn't fair. Like someone once said, if it were then birds couldn't eat worms. Cats couldn't eat birds, and coons couldn't eat, well...Kolbassa.
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The Coco kitty, who showed up here a few years ago, obviously has eaten far more Fancy Feast than wild game in her past life. Had to have been an indoor cat. Today she caught her first bird. Right out of thin air. Didn't know she could actually jump, because like me, she can be the perfect "body at rest."
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Only a wing was broken, so the bird just stood there stunned, unable to fly. And Coco
equally stunned, had no idea what to do with it. Now, if this had been Sweet Pea, the bird would have a clean puncture wound to the lung, take a few gasps of air and be dead. Some awfully loud blue jays saw all this unfold and decided it wasn't fair and started diving at Coco. Shocked the heck out of me. Why would two blue jays care about a sparrow in peril?
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I got the shovel and took the bird to the back of the burnpile at the edge of the woods and put Coco on the porch to contemplate her "catch" and the fact she could've had her eyes poked out by two very mad jays.
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Glancing back at the woods I felt sorry for the little bird. Minutes later I saw a raccoon making its way down that way. And another thought popped in my head. This is about the time in the evening I "dump" the remains of my supper near the burnpile where the groundhog lives. I actually thought I was "feeding" the groundhog...who ate rather well lately...leftover kolbassa, pierogies, pizza. I took all kinds of leftovers out there nightly rather than stuff them in the garbage for fear the coon would get them. But no...groundhogs are herbivores, I'm told. Oops.
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So WHO ate the kolbassa? Allowing for an occasional possum or passing stray cat... a light bulb comes on. I'm feeding the damn coon. He's on the frigging path to the burnpile.
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NO more.

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Mostly because I worry about Coco. Not that she is out at night at all....but this was evening for Chrissakes. Aren't coons sleeping now? I can't be attracting this creature so close to the house. It could go after Coco.
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Those of you who know me, know of my past run ins with groundhogs. Well I don't have a vegetable garden this year, so I don't really care about him. He managed to not die when we tried to burn the burnpile...even with all that smoke, so I suppose he deserves to live a little longer.
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I think that's fair.

The Paul Revere Ride Thing... Howzat Again?

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This is why the press followers her around. I'm just doing my civic duty passing it along.

David Byrne Said...

Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.
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David Byrne
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Midweek Quick Hits

It may be time for a "news" vacation this summer. It's the same thing every night anyway. First, the tornado coverage. (insert state here)

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Then it is on to whatever the hell Sarah Palin is doing travelling around on a bus. (today she was eating pizza with Donald Trump)

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Next it's the latest budget battle hype. Republicans are still cutting programs for the poor and cutting taxes for the rich, and the Democrats are trying to put back programs for the poor and put back more taxes on the rich. Same basic thing everyday.

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Insert Pro Israel story here.

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Next is on to the war....the war? Yes there are still wars going on, but who is winning? What will winning even look like?

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Gas price story goes here.

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Latest cell phone-cancer non-story here. Or latest coffee...good or bad....story.

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Then a "feel good" story. Something with school kids. Puppies. You get the idea.

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And that's the way it is.... good night.