Tag Archives: Blog

If the Weather is Nice You Should See What is Going On Outside

“What people call serendipity sometimes is just having your eyes open.”

–Jose Manuel Barroso

I realize I have been spending way too much time indoors and sitting at my computer over the past few months. I do venture out to walk to the car and drive places but I haven’t been walking around outside. I think I have been avoiding my front yard because it embarrasses me. It is currently a big weed patch. We need to get the landscaping done.

Today I did venture out to the car to load up some supplies I use for tutoring. I was busy deciding where to put my new rolling carry all when I noticed a teenager making his way across my front yard near my front walkway. At first I thought he was about to leave one of those random advertisements on my door. Like the ones for yard work. I was a bit suspicious of his intentions I must say. He saw me looking at him quizzically and said, ” Is this your property?” I said yes and then he told me not to worry because he was participating in a “water gun tournament” and that he was trying to hide and surprise one of his fellow tournamenters. I watched as he finished crossing my yard and told him it was ok as long as he didn’t squirt me. He laughed at that.

I thought this was the end of my interaction with the local teenagers when I spied another one squatting down, with a water gun, between my neighbor’s house and mine. This was getting to be really fun. I said to him that I had no idea this was going on around here. He said they had to catch other kids coming from their houses to their cars. I asked if they did windows. He said, ” Do you mean they need to be washed?” I said yes and that got a little laugh from him as well.

It was a happy encounter and I realized I need to get outside in the front of my house more often. Just look at all the interesting things I am missing out on.

How Technology Can Block Our Creativity

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How Technology Can Block Our Creativity. I was coming out of my morning fog, drinking my coffee, and checking out my Email when I saw someone on LinkedIn, Dr. Louis Naude on the Council for Exceptional Children group site, had shared the article above about how so many of us are addicted to our smartphones. Dr. Naude states, ” If we’re constantly bombarding our brains with input we do not leave much space for creativity.” This has been an idea I have been kicking around for awhile.

If you are walking around, like “the walking dead”, constantly checking your phone when do you have the time to think creatively or think in depth at all? So I was interested to see there is this project, mentioned in the article, at New Tech City called Bored and Brilliant.

In the first post of Bored and Brilliant it says that people who study these things have found that, yes, we do need idle, reflective time for our brains to be creative. Novel idea.

The Bored and Brilliant project has been started to help people get unhooked from their smartphones and start being brilliant. Sounds like a great idea to me.

Here’s a part of their first post:

“Here’s the issue: It goes back to when Apple introduced the first iPhone in 2007 — that’s less than a decade ago. Fifty-eight percent of American adults have a smartphone today. The average mobile consumer checks their device 150 times a day, and 67 percent of the time, that’s not because it rang or vibrated. Forty-four percent of Americans have slept with their phone next to their beds.”

So if you think you may be spending way too much time with your technology it would be worth it to check out this project.

This post is my contribution to Dandelion Fuzz’s weekly challenge. This weeks topic is Social Media.

|Katgotyourtongue|

Stream of Consciousness Saturday-Opposite Emotions

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Battery Low, Need to Plug into Energy Source to Recharge

When things get to me

It is a kind of draining

Like when you see the battery indicator on your cell phone

Showing the charge is getting low

My energy level goes down along with my spirits

Feeling low

Have to allow time to recover and get recharged.

The Opposite of Low is Elation or Passion

I wrote this on a prior post:

Too Passionate

I think there is a passionate temperament. A person that can feel so strongly. There have been many times when I have been standing upon my soapbox and declaring my opinion about something I found wrong in the world.

During those times of strong emotion I have noted others looking on calmly, almost disinterested. I have thought to myself how can they not feel anything about this? How can anyone not feel strongly about this ? How can people feel so dispassionately about things? It is like they are already dead.

I realized that I was different.

It is not just passionate indignation that I feel. When you have the capacity for strong feelings you can feel great joy and elation as well. Like when you see something you find beautiful or hear music that you love.

I am glad I am different if it means to feel deeply and be more aware in the world. Maybe this is why I always wanted to stand up for people’s right to be different. To be who they truly are.

Have you ever felt different or been told you are different?

Some people are sensitive.

“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this:

A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.

To him…a touch is a blow,

a sound is a noise,

a misfortune is a tragedy,

a joy is an ecstasy,

a friend is a lover,

a lover is a god,

and failure is death.”–Pearl S. Buck

Beautiful Voice: Renee Fleming sings Song to the Moon by Dvorak via Mr.Frais on You Tube:

|Lindaghill|

|Loveisindablog|

Sequel of To Kill A Mockingbird

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I read on Salon.com this morning that a sequel to the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee will be released this summer. The title of the new book is, “Go Set a Watchman.” Harper Lee, who is now 88 years old, is quoted in the Salon article. This is her first novel in 50 years. Ms. Lee won the Pulitzer Prize for “To Kill A Mockingbird.”

One of my favorite films of all time, based on the book, is “To Kill A Mockingbird,” starring Gregory Peck. It has a whole cast of wonderful actors including Brock Peters, Robert Duvall, Alice Ghostley and many more. Mary Badham and Phillip Alford play the children Scout and Jem. The screenplay is by Horton Foote and music by Elmer Bernstein.

We have our own copy of the DVD and have watched it over and over. I think the story is still pertinent today. It is about racial prejudice and prejudice against people who are mentally ill. It about standing up for what is right even when many people around you are against you. It is told through the eyes of the little girl Scout. I love her relationship with her brother Jem and all their adventures with their visiting summer friend Dill. There is some mystery in the story surrounding their neighbor Boo Radley who is shut away in his house except for his nighttime forays where he leaves little gifts in the hollow of a tree for the children.

I am very interested in reading this new book. It is about Scout as an adult. You can read more about it in the Salon article. It states that Harper Lee wrote this book before she wrote “To Kill A Mockingbird” and the novel was just discovered last Fall. I suspect it will be made into a film sometime in the future.

One Liner Wednesday-Funny Lady

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“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.”–Phyllis Diller

Early in her career Phyllis Diller did stand up comedy in San Francisco at a club called The Purple Onion in 1955. I never saw her there. I would have been too young at that time. I did go to The Purple Onion on a prom date several years later.

Phyllis Diller was one of the first female stand up comedians. She always made me laugh. Especially when she did skits that included her husband Fang.

|OneLinerWednesday|

Carmen Herrera Artist at 99

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I love reading a blog I subscribe to and get in my Email. It is from EngAGE. It is an organization based in Southern California that has created housing for older adults and runs all kinds of enrichment classes at their complexes. At their North Hollywood complex they have a full theatre available for the residents who can get involved in producing their own plays. In addition they have this uplifting blog to combat ageism. It features older adults doing all kinds of creative things. Senior Planet.org is another organization I love. They often feature similar articles as EngAGE and they discuss issues that impact older adults.

There are so many inspiring stories. One that was sent to me recently from EngAGE was about Carmen Herrera. She is an artist who was “discovered” at age 89 and now at age 99 her work is being featured at a famous museum and gallery. She is still working at age 99. I am sharing this information from the EngAGE blog and other articles about her. Here is one from the Guardian and another one here. Her art is now to be shown at The Whitney Museum Of American Art and the Lisson Gallery.

When I first read about Carmen Herrera I said fantastic! Here is an artist who is still creating. I love these stories about older people and their spirit to continue to create. Artists, writers, musicians often can all continue practicing their craft as long as they want. This inspires me and I envy them in that they have this wonderful work.

An alarming bit of information came up about women artists. I also get a newsletter from Hyperallergic.com which is about art. I read an essay “The Problem of the Overlooked Female Artist” by Ashton Cooper talking about how women and minority artists for many years were held back by a white male dominated art world. Or at least an art world that only respected white male artists. This is so disheartening to me. I did not realize this was again another field where this discrimination was going full force. Carmen Herrera mentions it in the interview above. How she was denied a show in a gallery because she was a woman. I don’t know how these artists did not completely despair. The essay from Hyperallergic links to several other articles on this topic of “overlooked” women artists. The author suggests the story of these artists lives should be explored in more depth to shine a light on what it was like to face this discrimination and how they coped with it all through the years before they were finally recognized. Some died before being recognized.

Carmen Herrera via Frederico Seve Gallery:

And from The Smithsonian:

|JusJoJan|

Moonstruck

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“Mentally deranged by the influence of the moon…dreamily romantic or bemused.”–Dictionary.com

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I. (Rodgers & Hart)

When he talks he is seeking
Words to get off his chest.
Horizontally speaking
He’s at his very best.

I love the film Moonstruck starring Nicolas Cage, Cher, and Olympia Dukakis and written by John Patrick Shanley. It is a romantic comedy where the main character Loretta ,(Cher), is afraid to get involved with Ronnie, (Nick Cage) ,the brother of her fiancé, because it goes against the rules. When she married her first husband she felt she did not follow the expectations of society and waited to have a baby. When her husband was killed she felt it was because she broke the rules. So Ronnie says to her in response:

” Loretta, I love you. Not like they told you love is, and I didn’t know this either, but love don’t make things nice-it ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren’t here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die! The storybooks are bullshit. Now I want you to come upstairs with me and get in my bed!”

” We aren’t here to make things perfect…we are here to ruin ourselves and break our hearts and love the wrong people and die!” I love that quote.

In the movie Loretta goes through a physical transformation from a dowdy looking woman to glamorous as she readies herself to meet Ronnie at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for a performance of La Boheme. A beautiful opera by Puccini.

I don’t think we are here to make things perfect either or to be perfect. We struggle and suffer and flail about a lot and try to do our best many times but we are not perfect.

This is for Stream of Consciousness Saturday with the prompt “sick”. It made me feel a little qualmish to write about “sick” so I decided to pick a synonym.

Kat Got Your Tongue Challenge-Sleep

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“Also, I could finally sleep. And this was the real gift, because when you cannot sleep, you cannot get yourself out of the ditch–there’s not a chance.” –Elizabeth Gilbert

The Greek god of sleep is Hypnos. It was said that near his cave were poppies and other hypnotic plants. His mother was Nyx the goddess of the night. Do you remember in the Wizard of Oz when the wicked witch put Dorothy and her friends to sleep with a field of poppies? Opium is a narcotic made from the Opium poppy.

I am a “light” sleeper and I am easily disturbed by my husband if he has a restless night or is stressed over something and not sleeping well. When my children were little I slept with my senses on alert to any disturbance coming from their rooms. I wake up if there is an earthquake. My husband, once he was asleep, could sleep through the kids crying and earthquakes.

Menopause made me more sensitive to stress and insomnia. For many years I think I had a sleep disorder and seldom got a good night’s sleep. There were periods where I would go through cycles of insomnia with a few nights of normal in between.

Thankfully, I have been improving in this area lately. I attribute it to the fact that my hormones are stable and I am no longer under a lot of stress with my work or life. My children are grown and out of the house. I am sleeping better.

I have not gotten to the stage of taking my improved sleeping pattern for granted. I can still feel gratitude for sleeping well.

It can be a vicious cycle if I have poor quality sleep. It leads to decreased ability to cope with stress. Then the increase stress leads to another night of poor sleep. I have read that not getting adequate sleep can cause us to have trouble maintaining a healthy weight. It can lead to obesity. I have had trouble with losing weight as well.

So I will have to see if this theory holds true. If I continue to sleep well and lose weight that would be great.

Now when I occasionally have difficulty staying asleep I do not fight it but get up or turn on a light and read for a while. Eventually I become drowsy again and can get back to sleep.

Do you have a remedy for insomnia? What do you do if you have trouble sleeping?

|KatGotYourTongue|

Making Connections with Social Media

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Are we more connected with social media? Facebook is great at reminding me of people’s birthdays and I get to be a voyeur into their lives when they share photos of their latest activities, partners, children, grandchildren or pets. Really I do appreciate being reminded of someone’s birthday because I am very bad at remembering other than my immediate family. At least I can see that people are still alive when I see their photos. I can wish them Happy Birthday on the right day. I like congratulating them on their achievements if they choose to share. I can click on “like” or make a comment. But do I feel closer to them? Not really. It is a pseudo closeness.

I resisted Email at first because I felt that it was not a good substitute for letters or phone calls. Then I succumbed to using it because it was a practical way to keep in touch with a distant family member and my daughter when she was in college.

Now the latest form of communication I have adopted is texting. I can see the practicality of texting when I am running around doing a lot and need to quickly remind someone to pick something up at the market or that I am running late. But as an exclusive form of communication, or to check in and say hello, texting is not the best. It is better than nothing and I can use it to make dates to really get together in person or have a phone talk. If it is just having a conversation in abbreviations, I find I can not really get much of a sense of the person I am texting with. With blogging, texting, tweeting or posting on Facebook we do not get the total picture of the person even if we get a photo. What I mean by this is we do not get the body language and facial expression or tone of voice that communicates so much about what is really going on with someone else. We get a few sentences and maybe some emoticons.

We really need to slow down and talk with each other don’t we in order to maintain any real relationship? Do you feel Facebook and texting or tweeting helps to maintain your relationships? Or are you wanting something more? Do you find it distracting and superficial? Like making electronic small talk?

The need to be texting or reading our Facebook page or checking out what is posted on WordPress is a way to entertain ourselves and keep from being bored or lonely but at what cost? It has an addictive quality like playing a video game. It is momentarily distracting and entertaining. It does not make a demand on us to think about much but the most superficial things. Besides affecting the quality of our relationships I would say it eats up a lot of time we could be using for something more meaningful.

If we let ourselves be controlled by social media it will impact the quality of our lives and what kind of society we live in. If we let ourselves be constantly seduced and distracted by social media it could keep us from fully living our lives. Do you try to balance the time you spend on social media with other activities? Do you make a special effort to un-plug? Do you think it is a good idea to make certain times off-limits to social media or texting like during dinner with your family/kids?

Here is an interesting TED talk on this issue:

Sherry Turkle TED talk Alone Together

Writer’s Quote Wednesday-Creativity

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“Creativeness often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago? ”

–Bernice Fitz-Gibbon

Being creative is taking materials already available and putting them together in a new way. What do you think?

Bernice Fitz-Gibbon (1894-1982) was a retail advertising executive for stores like Marshall Field and Macys. She eventually had her own agency and was named to the Advertising Hall of Fame. She was very forward thinking for her era.