Photo Safari

Okay, I was really hoping to get my photos and post up yesterday, from Sunday morning's Photo Safari. But between errands that couldn't be put off and a visit with Mom and trying to fix her computer...the day got eaten up by gremlins. So later -- look for the Photo Safari post and a little noodling about the nature of...nature.

G'night!

~M

Hi!

Remember me? Yeah, I've been off chasing squirrelez again. Lots of 'em.

Squirrel #1
I've been reading again. Oh, how I've missed reading without even realizing it! I mean, I've read the necessary. I've read the news. I've read some non-fiction. But I have missed my beloved fiction and have lately had some really good reminders about what I've been missing.

The Deed of Paksennarion by Elizabeth Moon (High adventure/epic/fantasyish)
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE is all I can say about that one. Well, one more thing, too. There is a new Paks book out which I will read ASAP. Can't wait. Okay, one more thing?  These are big, fat, GOOD books. And I do love big, fat, good books.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Insightful, heartbreaking, inspiring, entertaining, and courageous. I loved this book. It should be required reading.

Year of Wonders (A Novel of the Plague) by Geraldine Brooks
Beautifully woven story; a mirror held up to society then and now. Definitely worth reading and not as dark as one might expect, all things considered.


Squirrel #2
Netflix, oh yeahbaby. Probably should never have started on that, but really, really enjoying. The instant viewing feature that is part of my subscription is huge for me.
Fried Green Tomatoes - somehow I'd only ever seen a few bitty snippets of this movie before and thought I wasn't interested. A friend recently raved about it and told me I had to watch it. I did. Loved it. A LOT. Will be watching it again very soon, not too soon. But pretty soon. ;)
Leverage. Wow, I do love this TV series; and so much more enjoyable to watch them sans commercials! The Leverage team are smart, clever, and slick -- the characters and those who created them. Bravo! (I hesitate to write that 'out loud' as most of the good series' that I enjoy wind up being killed by the assassins of  good programming.  But hey, I saw an ad today for the new season, so I think we are safe for the nonce.)
Pootie Tang - This one would be a little outside the box for me to have picked up on my own, but happily, a friend told me about it and I cracked up and loved it. (Same deal with Borat.) If you can't handle a profusion of f-bombs and other colorful speech and lifestyles of the poor and infamous, you would probably be too distracted to enjoy this.

(FWIW: My viewing, reading and music tastes are rather eclectic.)

And last but not least, LOST -- I had to watch the entire series online to get up to speed for the final season. :)  Really enjoyed it all, beginning to end, even all those "WTH?" moments.

I'll miss it.

But anyway...I'm back!  :D

What have you been up to, lo these many months? Tell, tell!

~ M

Dumb Business & Smart Phones

I was back on my current mission again this morning: looking up information on cell providers and phones. You see, my contract with Sprint expired in December and I'm ticked off at them.

DUMB
They saw fit to give away the Blackberry I wanted at that time to new Sprint customers at Best Buy. Great deal, I thought, being a 10-year customer of Sprint. I'll call up and ask for that, too, since I'm due for a new phone.

But no. They wanted me, a customer of 10 years, to pay $49.95 for that same phone. When the rep said I couldn't get that phone free, even knowing I was a long-time customer and that I was due a new phone, I asked for a higher-up. And I got the same response: "No. But you can buy it for only..." I also got, "When your contract expires, you can go up to Best Buy and sign up as a new customer, and then get it free."

WTF?! Is there a word to describe how stupid that is?

Yes, of course, I could have gone out in subzero temperatures and fought my way through the blizzard and the holiday shoppers...but why should I have to? Why make your customers go out of their way to continue to be your customers? Make it easy to continue to be your customer!

What I said to that was, "Thanks but no thanks. I'll just look for another service provider." (See how polite I was? Trust me, that is not what I was thinking.)  They proceeded to try to talk me out of that, while sticking to their guns about not giving me what I had asked for.

No dice. Thank you and goodbye.

SMART
So, now I'm looking. I would love to get T-Mobile because a) they have a cool smart phone I'd like to have, b) the phone would be unlocked and you could take it to another provider and use it if you chose, and c) #4 in the market probably works harder to please their customers. However, T-Mobile's coverage map shows that while their signal would be great where I live, it wouldn't be so hot where I work and do some freelancing.

Two big questions remain:
What service provider should I go with?
Do I need/want what a smart phone offers over other phones sufficiently to justify the extra $30/mo. data plan?

I would really like to know what people are using their smart phones for the most. Is it making phone calls? Is it PDA functionality? Texting? You Tube? Is it necessary, or really just for fun? Could you do what you do on a nice not-smart phone with texting and camera and get by just fine?

Food, Inc., Watch It

I watched a documentary about a week or so ago called "Food, Inc."  Not a pretty story, but one I'm very glad I watched. (See a trailer here.)

It lifted the veil for me on some ugly realities, among them, the shameful, inhumane conditions under which many animals intended for our dinner tables are raised.

There was much more. Roger Ebert summarizes it well here, and frankly, I don't often agree with his reviews, but he's covered this one well. (Scared the bejesus out of me, too, Mr. Ebert.)

Lacking political muscle individually, the best thing we can do as consumers, is to "vote" to affect our food supply for the better by making moral, healthy and responsible choices at the cash register. Even those of us who may not be able to afford all organic and/or local products can make some effort for the good. Even if it's only contacting local school districts and looking into their school breakfast and lunch programs, and insisting on more healthy food choices if they're lacking.

Since I saw the movie, I've been very much more deliberative about what I'm buying. Have I made all the best choices in what I've bought since then? No. But I've made a start. I have absolutely made a few changes already in what I will no longer buy or eat. I will continue to adopt more changes in my purchasing as I grocery shop over the next few months, and am likely to be changing where I shop, as well.

I won't ask for any comments on this topic, lest any of us inadverdently break the Veggie Libel Laws (/eyeroll...can you believe that?!).  But that's another whole blog topic which I will leave to folks with consititutional law expertise. ;>

~M

Lest Anyone Wonder...

I have not gotten lost running after more squirrelez.  I have two posts in progress that I wish to spend some time "thinking on" before I spring them.

In the meantime, some words to live by:

"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them." 

          ~ Denis Waitley 
           (Tweeted by Ron Dubois today.)


Hope you all are having a lovely weekend.

Questions on Shaping Your Life

Ah yes. Chasing squirrelez.

So, back to the Wednesday post:  I try to pay attention when Life is smacking me upside the head about something. This past week it was all about Shaping the Life You Are Living.

I was led to read a couple of manifestos on the topic of exiting the traditional work-world, a.k.a.: Jail, for those who might otherwise truly flourish given the freedom to pursue their own Thing on their own Timetables. My particular brand of ESP has been bubbling up a lot the last few months around this idea, too, so I know I am closer to taking action on it. (Don't ask; this is just the way I was wired. ;))

Before I decide whether I am ready to jump ship, I would love more information from people already in the water. Please feel free to answer any one, two, or all of the points below, if you would be so kind. :)

How Did You Do It? How Do You Do It? How Do You Do?

• I wonder what it is that makes some people just know from the outset (or if they jump ship at some later point) that the traditional 9-to-5 is never ever going to fit their lives, and what happens to or around them when they make that known. What is the range of reactions people have to their choice not to be part of "the system"? 
• I wonder if they had some sort of financial security going into their off-the-beaten-path ventures, or whether they had 'not a pot to piss in', starting off. 
• What formal education (or lack thereof) did they set off with, and do they use that in their non-cubicle life's work? 
• Are there more sharks or dolphins in the waters of self-employment? (This can be people or unpleasant details you were not aware you would have to manage.)
  
• I wonder what it is exactly, that these adventurous people are doing as their Thing, and how satisfied they are with it and whether they are making a reasonable living (just for the sake of discussion, let's call that at least $50k a year.)
  

Please share!

Adopting Change

With the New Year nigh upon us people are talking about making Resolutions. "Resolve" is a serious word, and a very concrete one. I like the word. But for me, "adopting change" works better. It sounds more flexible and forgiving and I like those qualities.

It's not that I am not resolved to make changes, but that adopting change, for me, suggests assimilating behaviors that will help me progress to a destination point. I don't believe I will automatically be there, just because I've resolved to get there. I believe my changing old ways of being will be a process, with a little backsliding likely along the way, for which I will not beat myself up (though others may wish to, lol). Continual progress is the thing.

I have especially enjoyed Chris Anthony's Letters from Next Year and I will actually be writing one for myself this year. I think it will be fun to do, as well as a reinforcement for me to really adopt some changes into my life. (In his original year's post of Letters, Chris described how he wrote the Letter from Next Year as if it was already year-end, and how he would look at his letter throughout the year and see how he was progressing in comparison to his anticipated year-ending.)

In the past, when I have resolved and failed to live up to the resolution, I think it was often a matter of my setting myself up with something too big or difficult to accomplish alone, because that's the way I tend to operate. I have trouble asking for h-e-l-p. I guess somewhere along the line, I interpreted all dependence as helplessness or weakness, and those things are just not my way.

Background: I lost my dad when I was 14 and that was a tremendous blow and life-altering event, but I somehow felt that from that point on, I had to fill his shoes as best I could. I was going to be The Strong One. I was going to mow the lawn, rake the leaves, and cook on the grill. I was going to let my mom lean on me. I, a 14-year-old girl, would stand up and do what had to be done. In my mind, that was just The Way It Was Going To Be. (In reality, aside from whatever small help I was to her, I was still a 14-year-old girl, bound for teenage mischief, rule-breaking, and other foolishness that probably gave my poor mom a number of new gray hairs.)

Clearly, that large event in my formative years impacted me in a lot of ways, some of which became changes I adopted that no longer serve me (or anyone else). One of those ways was to not ask for help, when I really need it, and certainly could ask for it with no shame. People actually like to help others -- it makes them feel good -- and to refuse a good-hearted person the opportunity to be generous with their time, talents, or resources is sometimes just prideful and self-centered.  This goes on my list for change for the future.

Another change for me will be Adopting Disciplines of Daily Practice. This is something I've needed to work on for a very long time, and by work on, I mean FIX. Some examples I intend to address: 

• Course Correction:  I have been chronically late. Almost all the time. For almost my whole life. Almost everywhere I go. I am so sick of this bad habit and so are the people I keep waiting. I bet they would be amazed to know - however rude they feel it is toward them - that it is SO not about them, and that I feel crappy every single time I am late and yet...I haven't fixed this and am not sure I know how to. But it is going on my list for change. I am asking for help here!  If anyone reading this has conquered a horribly ingrained habit like this, please tell me precisely how you did it! I suspect there is some psychological benefit I'm gaining from continuing this pattern, but I haven't identified it yet. Pretty sure this has to be fixed from the inside out, and that fixing this will require thinking outside the box, listening to/reading what others have to say on the subject, and a LOT of discipline and daily practice. (One resource I will revisit in my practice will be this post from Varinder Parihar on his Writingleaf blog.)
  
• Personal enrichment:  I have a beautiful guitar that I don't play. In fact, I re-learn a few chords and plink around with it for a bit and then put it away again without having really learned to play and really absorbed it into my bones, which I would like to do. Why is it this way? I don't exercise the discipline of daily practice. Added to the list for change.
  
• Spirituality:  My faith in God was all shot to hell, so to speak, when semi-recent life events shook the emotional and life-structure foundations out from under me, and my previously solid faith in the God I thought I knew broke along with most of the rest of my life. Not sure how to rebuild spiritual practice out of rubble, but my soul is calling for it, so I'll find a way, and that will require the discipline of regular attention.
  

There are another few items I'll add to my personal list for Adopting Change, but those are a few that are important to me.

Now enough of my navel-gazing. What changes will you adopt and nurture on your continuing life journey?