blurry people

enjoying beverages
after being burglarized

further proof Ray was awesome

One of my friends sent me this quote from an article about Ray Bradbury

In 2009, at a lecture celebrating the first anniversary of a small library in Southern California's San Gabriel Valley, he exhorted his listeners to live their lives as he said he had lived his: "Do what you love and love what you do."

"If someone tells you to do something for money, tell them to go to hell," he shouted to raucous applause.    

AND

Go To Hell!!!!! Burglars who stole stuff from the livingroom and kitchen!!!!!

Hoy dia

Sad and entertaining.
Burglaries are bad.
Off the record comments from the investigating officer are enlightening.

Saturday Artistic Film Matinee Day

Was considering watching The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but now I think the choice will be Moonrise Kingdom because the Francoise Hardy song in the trailer won me over.

Listening to Stevie Nicks again

Rhiannon first ('cause I looked at some Tarot cards)

and Sara
a red haired babysitter of mine loved her, and also David Lee Roth
and loved to sing
and encouraged me to sing, too...
White Winged Dove
and blew on a paper towel to show us how brown her breath got from smoking cigarettes and told us that we kids should never, ever smoke...

This is sad.

Something I just saw and thought was interesting...

This tweet: "More folks would support gov't social programs if they experienced the pain of being a poor child."
 - http://twitter.com/Sherman_Alexie/status/211487391221944320.
I think that this is generally true...however, I also think there are some people who were poor or disadvantaged in some way while growing up, and the way they react to it is by throwing off their childhood and rushing into a better life, and then some of them might say, "If I did it this way, others should too. And if they didn't, it's their own fault for being lazy. I earned my money. And I'm not giving it away to the government."  And another thing, "If those people need help, they can just go to a church." So, although I do think that experiencing poverty as a kid can = more compassion for impoverished kids and more support for government social programs, it is not always a guarantee.
And kids who were poor and grew up in foster care and went into the army right out of high school may do that or kind of waver towards having that sort of attitude...'cause they're tough...

      

There was also this weird thing

Being in a hotel room in Lima for a few hours after spending a good deal of time in places with very limited technology, and this just happened to be what was on TV when I switched it on:

SM remembers Congresswoman Bella

More celebrity

Really, this person is a large part of the reason I went to Peru, and, by coincidence/accident, I even briefly encountered a guy who had been her tour guide, and the person who took us there had also met her, and said SM was a very warm person with beautiful eyes, or some such thing. Is there any good reason not to pay attention to her? SM earns AFI honor

SM childhood or preteen flick

Steel Magnolias and Shirley MacLaine = introduction to that southern concoction, red velvet cake.
It is surprisingly hard to find a clip of the armadillo cake scene.
There's a clip of Drum and "Weeza" (Ouiser) arguing...but no cake...

Cute anecdote

MacLaine swept Maggie off her feet

Interesting Bio

Meg White
of The White Stripes
of 7 Nation Army fame

How I peak culturally

peaking!

peaking...

Distant memory

One time I came home and had two parents in the living room getting along with each other and I was so happy
Maybe it was in Kindergarten
My house had carpet and a couch
I had ridden home and watched a boy get off the bus and looked at a field barren with stick-y hard yellow straw grass
and knew that his home was not very nice
and knew that I was not as unlucky as he
although a parent had sailed overseas to a foreign country
and then divorce had to happen
but there was at least one time when I came home
maybe in the Fall, when the leaves get crisp and orange
(like they get in colder East Coast climes of North America)
and two parents were in the livingroom
getting along with each other
I was so happy...
then I died.

Old Songs...

Starry Starry Night     Hey Jude     All You Need

starry things

it seems that some shows i saw at a local planetarium (for the eclipse and the transit of venus) have a ray bradbury and george takei fundraising connection

Celebrityish things

I'll have to ask the grocery check out girl if she heard about Ray Bradbury, if I see her. Maybe if he reincarnates he'll see the next Venus in transit.
Stars Align for Shirley MacLaine
Arrrr...Downtown Abbey and Walter Mitty!!!!
Downton
Reading "downtown" was kind of funny though.

Wow, old blog

Thisaway Rose

I don't really know if it's meditation-y...

But I decided to blow off schoolwork and watch this: Bokra Bfarjee

I think it's the best Nescafe ad ever.

Fire siren quote

Interesting...esp. for one who had once a terror of such sounds (possibly from being left alone when a fire at a neighbor's place occured as a very small child?)

"I had a friend who lived in the city quite near a firehouse. At first he would get really upset because when he was meditating he'd be very peaceful, feeling his breath, and then suddenly the sirens would go off. But what he learned was that he could include the sirens in his meditation, so that when the sirens went off, he could see if he was really present and mindful in that moment. After a while, he began wishing that the siren would come more often because it would always wake him up."

(pg. 31, Meditation For Beginners)

Ta-da again

TA DA

Revisiting on the eve of the transit of Venus.

Difference of opinion

This was posed as a request:
Look up something from Brandi Carlile's new album.
Clicked on the first song and listened to it.
"Eh...I don't know. Sounds kind of plain to me" said the first querent.
But the second querent kind of liked it.
That Wasn't Me.

2 happy things I noticed when I drove home

1) An incredibly joyful and bounding black and white dog pulling on a rope attached to a young man on his skateboard.

2) An ancient guy with a very, very long white beard holding a walking stick or cane and smiling big as he sat and waited at a busstop.

(Then I briefly searched but didn't see anything that looked like either of those...so, why not this picture of a cat pulling a dog toy?)

Image from http://designsbypaulobarini.wordpress.com/  

Scans from 2001



A book someone lent me

   Might have to get meditation-y.

I ain't sayin'

you ain't pretty!
Different Drum
that old song got in my head.

Garfield

Decided the Garfield content of my blood was getting low.

Hey Snow White and others

Hey Snow White
I heard the new Snow White movie is good.
Story on Snow White pop songs

Cats

cats

Animal Talk

 A bird on the cover or a cat on the cover?

Car music today

Car music today: mostly Kid A

Controversy

Military moms in uniforms breastfeeding.
I think if they put those pictures on billboards over the freeways there'd be some traffic accidents.

Bankrupt

A company that laid me and a buncha other people off a while ago...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing files for bankruptcy

Thank God she's not 16 anymore...

'Cause then this summer she'd end up riding with a distant cousin on the top of a car, speeding down a country road with little pellets of bugs hitting their faces, with some idiot teenage boy behind the wheel, and she would never do that now. Special song. Never listened to it all the way through...but maybe someday...

Special picture:

Prom date's mom worked for NASA and would sometimes get interviewed by TV crews in Costa Rica!!!!

Bad Mobo

"Sounds like the name of a band."
Could be. Or how about Fried Mobo.
"Bad Mobo" is what was writ on the form
Think I'll look at/listen to happy Bluegrass.
RIP Doc
Some of them look like little cities...

Large tree trunks & a flower

Is this happening soon?

Manhattanhenge
similar to Stonehenge?
sounds intriguing

fashiony stuff

I'm not so up on fashions and things, but sometimes it's fun to read articles by Ms. Schepens, a girl who was in my high school creative writing class...
Um...this is sort of recent...Designer Finds Moment of Zen

Lucy...

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

What I'm reading

In between fits of weeping and searching for a new computer...
Lit. One of my grad school friends has read it. If the other one gets to it, we'll have a book club over the phone...

Bah

It's not just the OS that's bad on the "deal" of a computer; it's the hardware too. Some deal!
CROCUS SCHMOCUS
I just thought that would be fun to say or type.
Oh my gosh. You can actually find stuff when you google that.

Instrumental music

Background music to work to.
Explosions In The Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place

A song heard on a road trip

Here we go magic - A different ship - Over the ocean

Not for sleepy driving!

Big Clover

This Memorial Day

Stepped outside and saw a squadron(?) of military aircraft in the sky. Everyone was looking at those. I wondered if all the pilots were in a really good mood. Hopefully so.

Terrific song

Thanks, military man's music collection. Fallin' - Connie Francis

So one time, my computer died

and then I found one on sale and plus got an extra discount and got excited and called people who were out but then one was in and I got, like, this astonishing, fire and brimstone, super religious um... and then the new computer didn't work either??? them's the breaks sometimes

This animation

The Best Country For Mothers

Maps and music

Maps and music are remedies. Ma-a-aps song. Any one of those maps books would probably be very pleasant to spend some time with.

An Opinion

I think army brats, and everyone else, should get AFFORDABLE health insurance for life.
I mean, health insurance that's actually useful and pays for stuff.
_ _ _ _ _
For some reason I got Crackity Jones in my head.
~~~~~~
And then Where Is My Mind.

A Writer

I read My War by Paul Fussell. I'd never heard of him before, but he died this week.

Maps

A map from You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination

From Brain Pickings - Creative Cartography: 7 Must Read Books On Maps

Fun Album covers

that are also somewhat food or beverage related
and good songs too, of course.

The Logical Song

Goodbye Stranger

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings

MT writes a librarian

I am greatly troubled by what you say

The strangeness of coming out from anesthesia...

 "I started to wake, I saw the big round lighting fixtures on the ceiling and the first thing that went into my mind was Mark Twain...And I'll be damned if now whenever I'm left to drowsing by myself all my thoughts don't start coming out like a Mark Twain book.  I think somehow in the deep slumber of anesthesia, close to death itself, Mark Twain's words got in there.  And they seem to be stuck there..."

Check out girl recommendation

It can be a good idea to listen to the girl bagging your groceries...
Ray Bradbury & Snoopy

Be kinder to yourself...

Don't yo-yo diet...
Body Hatred Killed My Gall Bladder

Eggplant

I think I clicked on this for the picture.

PS - Quick Selection & Refine Edge

If you're going to watch a photoshop tutorial, it should be one with a guy proferring (sp?) an eggplant.

High school meme(s?)

It quite makes sense...for many, high school is the era of broken valentines.
Thanks to a high school photography class, I got very interested in some old photographs.
It Won't Come Smooth
MacDonald family
I wonder if high schools still have photography classes with dark rooms and fixer and stuff.
~~~~~
Maybe not? But I guess they have the internet and things like High School Memes...

Rattlesnakes

This was fun to drive/singalong to yesterday.
Artist's Rattlesnakes cover.

is crazy, no?

There is an Antique Vibrator Museum.
~~~~~~~
Uh oh. Water aerobics shenanigans...
Old Ladies Who Didn't Love Me

"sounds like a brother"

I heard someone say that phrase recently, so I decided to search it on the internet...hmmm...
There's...
Sounds Like A Brother (Explicit)
Love You Like A Brother
The Sisters Brothers
and much more!
Now I have to go to bed
but maybe I'll investigate that more tomorrow.

How happifying

Birmingham Rollers and Beethoven
found that at this post:
Praise for Pigeons!

What can tick me off

Finding out that someone worked hard and diligently at her minimum wage hotel maid job, got tipped by customers who were impressed by the service, etc., and then the health insurance pays for notafuckingthing.

Shores of Silver Lake

(Illustrations by Garth Williams)

More from Shores...

More lovely illustrations by Garth Williams

Book Addiction is Terrible

Today I got this:

That very afternoon Clarence pulled Martha's hair. Her brown braid whisked across his desk as she turned her head, and he caught it and gave it a tug.

“Clarence,” Laura said. “Do not disturb Martha. Give your attention to your lessons.”

He gave her a friendly grin that said as plainly as words, “All right, if you say so; I don't have to.”

To her horror, Laura almost smiled. Barely in time, she kept her look stern. Now she was sure that she would have trouble with Clarence.

--“One Week.”

Also this, which I have never read, but looks like something you'd unearth from a book stash in someone's attic.

What's a linnet? A valerian?

Eclipse

Beach

This looks like a good candidate for either the Jesus Footprints poem or Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy.

Heyyy...intriguing...

Jherek Bischoff - Young and Lovely