Relationships

Relationships.  A very powerful word, as all words are.  But, what has this word morphed into?  With the infusion of devices and their app’s affecting the attention span, when is there time for human conversation?  When does that moment occur that people meet, talk, and connect?

The other day I had an early doctor’s appointment.  The results of the appointment were the positive release from a surgical procedure that was deemed healed, at this visit.  It felt really good to get that information and to get back into regular motion and walking.  The surgery on my foot had had me either in a wheel chair or using crutches to walk around.  Let me say, neither is a comfortable locomotion and my feelings are permanently moved to assist others that may not have the option to not use these tools.  After the doctor’s appointment I stopped into a Starbuck’s for a coffee.

Sitting alone, sipping my coffee and contemplating the rest of my day, in walked another customer with John Lennon on his tee shirt.  I couldn’t help myself to make a positive comment about this man’s tee shirt.  As it was on a cold December day, on my way to work, on my birthday, only to hear on the radio that John Lennon had been shot at his home and was dead.  I made a comment about “all you really need is Love”, and how we are on a small planet and the condition of humanity makes us all one tribe.

My new friend Ian and I struck up a conversation, and discussed our lives our children and this and that.  Ian told me about how is son had survived a brain tumor, and how the “old church ladies” had been so wonderful - to a point that you wanted to almost avoid them because of their one endearing activity “the old church lady hug!”  I broke up in laughter, because growing up in southern Ga, attending church with my GrandMother, I truly understood the gravity of what an old church lady hug had to impart - both its spiritual power, and its inmate ability to constrict you like a large boa snake.  We talked more, as Ian is a photographer and I have a very novice attitude to enhance my photo taking hobby, but right in the middle of talking I had to let Ian know that I had gotten such a contact high off the expression “church lady hug” and that it had really brought up some past good feeling - almost flash back good.

Regardless, Ian is a person that I will call and meet for a coffee, because we connected, we interacted, and we communicated, and there was no texting, no FaceBook, just talk.  Ahhhhhhh!

You may see his art at http://www.ianfrankgallery.com.

Relationships, they come out of nowhere, and can be the best moments of your life.  Don't let the technology of distraction keep you from paying enough attention to see a relationship in the making...

Minding life's magic

Too often the rose misses her own bloom.

The audience of bees becomes the sole focus. Caught in a deluge, she's found blind to the ambrosia that are her own accomplishments. Her petals falling, concentric in the cumbersome spiral that mazes its way from sepal to pistil. 

The rose should never forget; she is the art, the wilds, the catalyst that begets growth. Without her bees would just buzz, lost. 

This wonderful post was written by my son, Gordon.  Great is he who can express his thoughts clearly, and comfort someone with kind words. 

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my 58th birthday, and so far the day has begun with well wishes from friends and family. Good day!

DLTFGYD

As I followed a post from 40 Watt Gigolo on a song from the Savages, I'm compelled to put the efforts back into the Chi of Me.

DLTFGYD - Don't Let The Fucker's Get You Down.  Simple, succinct, exact!  This line from the song Fuckers, puts it all in perspective by exclaiming to not let "them" steal the freedom to feel young.  Great philosophy, when you think that we live in a country where you have the freedom to pursue happiness, but that you can become so beat down by the system or as the commonly expressed inference is "the man" that you allow your youthful vigor to be taken from you.  This is true blasphemy if ever there was such an act against one.

But this all girl band puts such energy into the production of this song, that it goes way beyond a psychedelic cacophony mixing fusion jazz and hard beating punk angst into a song that reaches deep inside you.  Listening to it,  you become intensely moved.  Women banded together have this effect on people (Thank you God!).   I truly felt the movement, and now I have an albeit mishmash moniker of a new mantra that is DLTFGYD!

Upgrading - or just an opportunity to learn more about the tribulations of software?

I am comfortable with my current version of Mac OS (Mountain Lion); however, the feature that allows for app expansion only within the current monitor space that Mavericks offers is very appealing.

But at what cost is an upgrade, even when the software is free?  There is always a cost of time and effort needed to implement the backups, learn any nuances that changed in the work flow due to some engineer knowing a better way for you to perform a task, and just the typical stuff that can just go wrong (thank's Murphy for never taking a day off.)

But I'm going to do the upgrade and learn what needs to be learned, and to then lick any wounds that I incur along the path, because the feature of having the screen expansion local to the monitor that the app is residing on is just too good to do without.

The Power of the Last Minute:

Call it what you will, but without the last minute there are a great deal of things that would just not have gotten done.  It is sometimes referred to as "crunch time", "the push", or "Oh shit the work I've got to get done!"  Regardless of the label, it means that significant output is now required in a freaky small amount of time, as the deadline is approaching.

This was the feeling that I had with the approaching love fest that is Valentine's day.  Each year I have set upon the muse to come to me and produce an outpouring of rhyme on the topic.  This year, I actually had the fear that the muse was not going to arrive in time.  My usual routine is to have several ideas in the queue that I can gel and mold into an output, but this year February got here and I had nothing. Nothing, is not good - unless you have an innate ability to produce something really spectacular from it.

The nothingness finally subsided on the 6th, with a product due for delivery within eight days.  Whew!

And the good that will come of it is that I got to learn how to use the GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program) on the Mac.  Like Photoshop, GIMP is a massively complex program.  I needed to be able to take an image and adjust its transparency for use as a watermark under my Valentine poem.  For this, the Internet and its call to duty team of people who post the best of their work for free (the aid of humanity by individuals is a wonderful endeavor) to help others to understand is just awesome.  But with a little search time, and a little more reading, I was able to find the necessary post that put the A,B, C to using the image manipulation software in my new bag of tricks.  From which, I now have a product to release, that I am happy to say is of the quality that is always expected.

Learning, while at the same time thwarting procrastination, and fear of failure are what motivates sometime.  So the next time you think that the last minute is upon you, and the fear of missing the deadline is nigh, just remember you may not be alone because the last minute always will be there to remind you that something has to ship.

Back in the saddle

This week is flying into the new year  at a rapid pace.  I elected to have surgery during the "down time" at the end of the year.  This required that I stay off my feet for what was planned to be 2 weeks, and has turned into 3 weeks.  Man-O-Man, you never know how much you could miss walking around until you cannot!

But the time of convalescing is coming to a close, and I find out Friday if my imposed torture is at its end (and I really hope that it is) so I can dance however I want, and whenever I want.

I do not ever want to be this debilitated again (if I can help it.)

But as the new year started, and I get into the swing of things, I find that teleworking is a marvelous thing - making the power of the Internet work in ones favor just having a connection and creating with brain and fingers, and getting paid for it. 

Cool!