The Difficulty With Easy

Have you noticed the more automation and modern conveniences we glom onto the more complicated our lives become?  I sent a simple e-mail with a file attached home because it was so cool, (I watched a little bit of it at work and realized I needed to send it home to watch) and now I can't open it.  I HATE THAT!  It was a slide show of the Earth with photos taken by a female astronaut.  

In fact, I haven't been able to open much of anything I've been sent for a couple of weeks other than straight photographs.  So what does that mean, did some little chip termite infiltrate my hardware a

nd slurp up the software application I need to do this?  

Well, fine.  I won't be able to look at any files from now on because I don't know how to fix it.  And that is the problem in a nutshell.  If ANYTHING goes wrong with my computer, my cell phone, my access to one of my accounts, my computer, my DVD player, my iPod, the malfunctioning item is as good as toast because I CAN'T FIX IT!

I guess the real problem is that you become dependent on whatever goodies you have and then have no patience with them not working and working quickly.  Or at least I don't.   I simply don't have a brain that can wrap itself around the workings of these things and figure out how to fix the malfunction. 

I wonder if most people's IQ's deteriorate over time.  I'm only wondering because I'd swear I used to have a much more agile mind than I have now.  It's like it's gotten itself into one of those ruts you see in old bowling alleys and it can make its way out.

I listened to a luncheon speaker today talk about his "whack" and how sometimes you get up in the morning and you just don't have your whack.  Or you think 

you've got your whack and somebody comes and takes it away with bad news or criticism. Kind of like these folks here.  

Tonight, I feel like I've lost my whack.  It was a day full of confrontation and settling instead of getting what I'd hoped for.  There were also way too many detailed discussions, which always puts me into headachesville.

Anyway, now I'm home and ready to go practice since I can't do anymore on this thing.  Then off to my workout at which time I'll roust my spouse out of his potato couch downstairs to redirect him into the upstairs version of the same thing.  I can't imagine having that much time to just sit.

The Day After

Well, that went well...NOT!  First, as I started to play, Baby Boy got upset and began to play with me which virtually made it impossible for me to continue.  I had asked for him to be taken downstairs for a few minutes so I could get through this, he was then quickly bustled downstairs to play with Papa Mike and Gr-Grandpa for a bit.  So I started over again but, of course, at that point the damage to my psyche was done.  I will say, once I got further into it, I did better.

The fact of the matter is Mother loved it anyway because it is her favorite song, bar none.

I even agreed to play it for her again at her 80th birthday (in October of this year).  Regardless, I am not a performer and am confident I never will be unless I can find a way to get past the discomfort of knowing someone else is listening to me make mistakes.

Maybe I need to wear those blinders a horse wears or ear plugs with the blinders or sit in a glass enclosed studio with no outside noise whatsoever or I don't know, I give up.  I'm disappointed in myself and I knew that would happen.  I think I'm a psychological failure in that I do 

this to myself and haven't figured out how to overcome my own psyche.

Anyway, ironically I need to go practice and workout before I start the rest of my day.  While I don't find the show as dignified and classy as it used to be when the prior generation reigned, I'll still probably succumb to watching the Academy Awards again tonight.  

What can I say, I've been a movie afficianado from childhood and expect that to span the rest of my life.

Along those lines, we probably had 200-300 VHS videos and I decided I needed to use one of the huge drawers they were stored in for gift wrapping supplies.   

So, last night we went through every one of them to decide what would be given away and what would stay until they're replaced with DVD's.  I'd say we got rid of 150 at least, filling 3 large trash bags to be taken to Goodwill today.  And, I have my drawer to move into today.  The "spring cleaning bug" has bitten me early this year.

I'm off to start checking all these things off my list.

Today's the Day

After 9 months of practice, I'm finally playing "Stardust" for my mom for her October birthday.  This whole thing got delayed when she had a stroke in October.  It has really taken her until now to recover sufficiently that it made sense plus holidays plus snow plus, plus, plus...

It will be nice to play it for the last time.  Do I play it perfectly you ask?  Far from it.  I am convinced I will not have a second career as a concert pianist.  I become fumble fingered the minute I think someone else can hear me playi

ng. 

 That, of course, is on top of the fact I still make mistakes playing pieces for my se

lf.  I have never been a perfectionist in anything, detail drives me crazy.  Maybe there's a little ADD in my make-up.  It's difficult for me to sit still, I need to keep moving around.  I hate sitting and listening to something for a long period of time.  I can't even sit for an extended period of time reading a great book.  

I don't remember being this way in the past but it's definitely where I 

am today.  Who knows, maybe it will help to keep me from becoming a giant balloon of a person in retirement.  

That seems to be a daily challenge anymore.  It's strange, it's almost like my body isn't mine anymore, it doesn't react the same and doesn't act the same.  Maybe leprechauns changed it out one night when I was sleeping for one of my half hours or so of sleep.  People steal kidneys and other body parts, you never know, it could be possible.  Interesting movie possibilities...

Life in the Middle Lane

Do you ever feel like you're constantly being passed?  Or, like you're in the wrong place each time you really want to change lanes?  Or, like you just generally always choose the wrong line (or lane in this case)?  Out of touch, out of time, out of your mind?  I think I'm there.

That's it.

I Knew I Shouldn't Have Had the Chai Tea

At some point tonight I'm sure I'll be able to go to sleep but it won't be for awhile.  There are some things I just can't seem to pass up and an Oregon Chai tea latte is one of them.  It wasn't even a big one but of course that doesn't matter, caffeine is caffeine, regardless.  

OK, I'm getting a little more familiar with Facebook, enough so that I'm probably irritating everyone I'm writing to.  I figure it's just a carryover from my grade school days when I was constantly in trouble for talking.  I see this as just another form of talking too much, continuing to write far beyond when anyone cares to hear what I have to say.  I'm sure I had at least one teacher who said I had diarrhea of the mouth and in these 50 long years I obviously haven't found the cure (I haven't 

looked very hard either).  

Jon Stewart is such a master at interviewing.  I have the utmost respect for the fact that he can sit across from someone he totally disagrees with and

 have a lively conversation and still not piss the guest off.  Not only that, they'll come back for more in a few months.  Tonight it was Sununu (okay it was really last night but I do better at watching the earlier scheduled

 reruns) who to my way of thinking was just another Republican banging the party drum saying everything the Democrats were doing was wrong because it was being done by the Democrats.  I really wonder if Obama is ever going to be successful in achieving anything bipartisan because they have a definite agenda and they're holding tight.  

Somehow, I'm quite sure McCain has everything to do with this.

But if these Reds are so convinced the Blues are wrong about everything, where's their brilliant, better idea?  I haven't heard a single viable alternative from these jokers, all they can do is pick apart what has been offered up and ensure the country will continue to be crippled by their childish behavior.  I don't truly believe that any of them really care about their constituents, because their constituents are without jobs, without homes, without money and without time while they are back in Washington preening their feathers and shooting off their mouths with their empty-headed, pointless thoughts.

Another plane crash, you know if this keeps happening, it will make it harder and harder for people (like me) to get back on a plane.  You start to feel like you're playing Russian Roulette, wondering when it's your turn.  Creepy.

Well, I think I'll see if I can finish up my Madeline Albright "Memo to the President".  I hope he read it and keeps it around for reference.  I would certainly want her in my corner if I were him.  

LA

So I spent Monday and Tuesday in LA aka Los Angeles and it was somewhat interesting.  

First, I took a shuttle bus from the airport because I'm trying to be thrifty.  $14 vs. $40-$50 seemed like a better deal.  Well, that's when you get into the time value of money.  Among the 9 people we had on the bus, we had a young man who wanted to go to the Guest House on the UCLA campus.  He didn't have either the address of a phone number to call anyone mind you, but he was adamant he needed to go to this place.  So the ever obliging bus driver proceeded to cover every square inch of road within the campus at least twice (this would be a very, very large campus) and there was no guest house to be found.  After driving for about 15-20 minutes, he asked someone where it was and the young man said it was across the other side of the campus so off we went again.  We drive around then for awhile on the other side of campus and finally ask a young woman where it is and she says, "Oh, that's on the other end of campus".  Hm, I'm starting to see a trend here, are we on Candid Camera?  Finally, the driver is just about to dump this guy out on his ass, which he totally deserves) and I look to the right and ask my fellow bus riders, "Is that what you're looking for"?  Everyone looks to the right and there's a building with an inconsequential sign reading, "Guest House" in front of it.  

Two of the largest in the group finally get off the bus and the rest of us start to cool down (a couple of real hot-heads were in front of me).

Then, that night, I ordered room service and I asked the lady on the phone if the bottles of water were small or large and she says small so I order two.  They show up on the tray and I swear they were each about 10 inches high and big, round bottles.  I called the number again and said, I can't drink both of these (sparkling in nature) so they agreed to take one back.

On Tuesday afternoon, I ran up to my room on a break and my key didn't work.  It was deadsville so I had to go back down to the desk where they tried the key and it said it was fine.  They looked at me and thought better of asking me to try it again (of course I had to go to the bathroom) and they gave me a new one.  I chalked that one up to my magnetic field problem.

This was the view out of my room window (from the balcony if it hadn't been so cold).

Then we get to the airport (LAX) yesterday late morning and got in the security line which was both long and slow moving.  I got up to within 10 people of the end of the line where you take your shoes off and they say no, you need to walk down to the other end of the hall and go through the other line because one of the machines broke.  There were the typical whiners in the crowd who pulled out every cuss word in the book and got put through the line early.  The 

rest of us stood in line for a total of about an hour just to get through to walk out to the gate. This is the reason you get to the airport early kids.

Otherwise, the trip was great.  I was staying on the Avenue of the Stars and that sounded very important.  Well crap!  I just looked on Google and this was the street where Grauman's Chinese Theater and the sidewalk of stars was, I just don't know how far away it was from me.  I know I didn't see it anywhere close-by.  I hope it wasn't too close, I would have loved to have seen Lassie and Bing Crosby's paw prints.  I'm quite sure 3 out of every 4 cars were some luxury model and we did drive past the entrance to Bel Aire on the way to the hotel.

Anyway, an interesting two or so days.

Causation

Has there ever been a war started over...um...best friends?  Over ice cream?  Over someone's garden?  Over someone doing someone else a favor?  Over someone getting a promotion?  Over someone taking a vacation?  Over a child learning to say their first word?  None that I can think of.

So why is something as innocuous as religion so volatile.  Let's dissect.  

On the "loser" side, if you believe a certain religious "story" and you find out

when you  die you picked the wrong religion you might end up going to 

Hell or

 you might be reincarnated as a turtle or you might be done, period.  

On the "winner" side, if you picked the right religion you might end up living in very balmy, white, fuzzy clouds, you might have a constant smile 

on your face and you might be given wings when a bell rings, I think I have all that right.

So does all this mean there's someone beyond our horizon who has this giant blackboard (I'm having a non-electronic fantasy) who is keeping track of the winners and the losers meaning you each receive a hash mark as you pass 

through the portal? 

I can see it all now: 

You started the Iraq war - Loser

You prayed to the right supreme being, Bhudda - Winner

You cheated your little sister out of her chocolate sundae - Loser

You went to church every Sunday your entire life - Winner

You didn't believe the Koran - Loser

You only bought dolphin-free tuna - Winner

You didn't use the write sign-off in your prayers - Loser

You became a pacifist and were shot down in the riots at Kent State in the 70's - Winner

You ignored the genocide happening around the globe - Loser

You fell asleep during the Sunday sermons - Winner

You threatened your family if they didn't believe exactly what you did - Loser

You didn't shine your shoes before Temple - Winner

You spent your life intending but not doing - Loser

You rolled on the floor in church while speaking in tongues - Winner

You believe everything your government and the news media tell you - Loser

You planted trees every day of your adult life - Winner

Who can say who is right and who is wrong?  Religion forces (or tries to) us to

believe what it says whether you're Nazarene, Seventh Day Adventist, Catholic, Jewish, Moslem, Hindu, African tribesman, aborigine, Native American, Bhuddist or atheist.  You have to 

go along with whatever they "preach" or you don't have faith, which of course means you're going to Hell.  The fear, hatred and violence that surrounds the need to be right is pervasive.  

My question is who says any one of these choices is the right one or the wrong one?  Why is there this broad-based life & death need to be right?  And what is it about living in the

 Midwest that makes you conservative?  Is it the vegetables, the weather, dust on the brain...what then?

Have I Lost My Mind Or Is It Parked Around The Corner?

I need to conduct a study of how many minutes I waste in a day looking for things I know I have but can't find anywhere.  Sometimes it's a book, sometimes a movie, sometimes a bottle of cleaning solution, sometimes wrapping paper, sometimes toilet paper, sometimes a piece of clothing, sometimes some type of food (especially from the freezer or the pantry), sometimes it's an address or sometimes it's something I need to take to work. 

 Then there's a whole other list of things I lose at work, mostly documents and/or files.  Of course, I'll have to beware of scope creep because while looking for these missing things I spend almost as much time trying to remember what I was looking for when I started.  On second thought, the results of this study could be so disturbing and depressing I might never recover.  I need to face up to the fact that I won't improve regardless of whether or not I know these statistics.   Never mind.