I’m Baaack…..

I’m Baaack…..

by sharwrite ♥ 2 Comments

Just a short note to my friends who still ask, “What happened to you?  Where’s your blog?”

No, it didn’t disappear, I just got busy doing other things.  Yet I am resolved to start again, and should begin within the week.

The real issue for my hibernation is, I had no idea how busy I would be when retired.  Think of the word, ‘ retire.’  Does it mean get to work?  No, quite the opposite.  I’m always busy.  What with technology, I even have post it notes on my computer screen admonishing me to do this, do that, get busy, go to a meeting, go to the doctors (the latter seems to be high on the list of retirees).  I can never complete what I have to do in a day and then it slides over to the next day which is already too full so some things just don’t get done.

If you were a workaholic in your previous existence, chances are you will continue to treat aspects of your life the same way.  Conversely, if you were a couch potato before, you might well become twice baked before you know it.

I was the former and the blog was my new job.  It started to “un-fun” me towards the end of last year.  My new plan is to start out with a blog appearing every 2 weeks instead of weekly.  If something strikes my fancy — well you may see me more frequently.  But the workaholic time schedule is in the past.  In a previous post, “Life is what you make it,” I noted “it’s not the company schedule, it’s my schedule.”  So, I’m taking my own advice and being selfish with my time.

 “Let the games begin!”

 

MISSING POST?

MISSING POST?

by sharwrite ♥ 3 Comments

A friend e-mailed me last week. “We haven’t seen your blog for a while.  What happened?   You were sending one every week.”

That is (or more accurately was) correct.

Things are beginning to catch up with me.  I started a great on-line class called Writeriffic.  As you might guess, it’s a writing course.  What comes with writers’ courses?  Writing assignments.  I’ve been trying to keep up with them and forgot I also signed up for an editing course.  I just finished lesson one.  Unfortunately, the class is up to lesson three.

The Miracle Mile Toastmasters Website is finished, but posts need to be added to the blog page.  Only four to go.

Thanks to my instructor in Writeriffic talking about ‘The Artist’s Way’ 12 week creativity course, I thought, “let’s take that as well.”

Suddenly, anxiety started to build.  I heard voices (yes voices, and take that smirk off your face) that were saying, “You haven’t started to write your blog this week.  Do you even have a clue what you’re going to write about?  When are you going to do it.”

Here’s what happens when anxiety sets in — my mind goes blank.  It rebels, and says, “I don’t want to think, LET ME ALONE.”

By Friday, while looking at an empty computer screen, I realized something had to give.  The creativity course can wait till after the holidays and I’ll get to the blogs after I catch up with my classwork.

As the whiney little voice started questioning again,  I responded, “I’m retired damn it,” and in typical Scarlett O’Hara fashion announced, “I’ll think about it tomorrow.”

To my readers, I’ll be returning soon.  Hang in there.

 

I’m an ITechie

I’m an ITechie

by sharwrite ♥ 3 Comments

I went to Apple School this morning because  I couldn’t figure out how to use my IPhone.

Oh, I can make and receive calls and even send and receive text messages, although I’m pretty anti-text.  It takes me forever to send one because I keep hitting the wrong damn keys.  My messages look something like this:

R U gpinh to the gy this a?  Translation:  Are you going to the gym this AM?

The akr went off and I thouht it was a sigm to gp back to skeep.  Translation:  The alarm went off and I thought it was a sign to go back to sleep.

I delete entire sentences to get one word spelled correctly.  And that’s another thing.  No one spells anymore.  We have taken brevity to a whole new level…for instance:

RU = are you

BTW = By the way

OMG = Oh my God!

LOL = Laughing Out Loud

The examples above are about the only ones I know.  If someone truly advanced in ‘smart phone lingo’ sends me a text, I haven’t a clue what they’re saying.

My girlfriend and gym pal (although I’ve been bad the last couple of weeks, so we may not be gym pals anymore), showed me the Pandora App.  WOW, music while you sweat.

Years ago I got an IPod for listening to music (it’s somewhere in the house) and had an Apple ID and password.  When I got my Mac,  I’d forgotten the ID and password for the IPod, so started again.  When I got the phone, I couldn’t recall the previous info so started yet again.

Of course, I had problems hitting the right keys and somehow the ID got screwed up.  As a result, the ID (which is an e-mail address) was saved and is completely wrong.  Apple was sending confirmations to me at an insurance company in Connecticut every time I’d try to fix it.

Finally, I called Apple Support and explained I couldn’t download Pandora.  We discovered all kinds of ID’s and passwords on my account.  I’d been collecting them like Halloween candy.  All tolled,  it took several hours, but I finally have the musical app on my phone.

There was clearly more to learn.  “Why won’t my mail download?  What is that Health App?  Why won’t my calendar on the phone connect with the calendar on my Mac? And, what is Siri?”

Time for an Apple School Workshop.  I asked why my phone and Mac calendars wouldn’t connect, and that’s when the subject of ICloud came up.  ICLOUD!  WHAT IN THE SAM HILL IS THAT?  We checked out  ICloud on my phone and my ID had the insurance company’s e-mail.

In order to change it a password was required. I just stared at the screen.  Of all the passwords used in the past few years, which one was used on this bogus account?  It took 45 minutes, but I now have one Apple account that is for everything.  Of course, its password is new.  I’ve written it down in my password book, saved it on my Mac and IPhone .  In case the book gets misplaced, if I find the blasted IPod I’m  getting rid of it.  I refuse to go through this again.

Later in the day, a friend called.

“So, what have you been up to?”

“Went to Apple School for an IPhone workshop.”

She sounded skeptical, “You had to go to school to learn how to use a phone?”

“Well, it’s not just a phone — it’s a SMART phone.  It communicates with my Mac via a cloud!  I can actually talk to it and it answers me — sometimes with a woman’s voice and sometimes with a man’s voice.  I don’t know which I like best.”

“Yah, but it’s a phone and you had to go to school to learn how to use it?”

Some people are not easily impressed.

 

I wonder what Jim and the guys would think….

I wonder what Jim and the guys would think….

by sharwrite ♥ 6 Comments

When James Madison penned the First Amendment to the Constitution in 1789, “Congress shall make no law….abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press….,” it was an effort to protect citizens against the power of government.  Our country had experienced a long war which was fought to ensure freedom from oppression.

Times have changed.  In the latter part of the eighteenth century, there weren’t advertising agencies vying to get lucrative business from clients in the political arena.  Hmmm, I wonder what Jim and the ‘pro-Bill of Rights’ guys would think if they had to listen to political advertising today.

‘Core political speech’ falls under the First Amendment and therefore does not censor the ‘opinions’ of  citizens.  Candidates and their staffs, use that premise, to say whatever — be it truth, semi-truth or not truth at all.  Too often, it is couched in language IMPLYING FACT.   You ask, “Isn’t there supposed to be a ‘truth in advertising’ standard?”  Yep!  There sure is, but somehow when it comes to politics, it’s fairly easy to fly under the radar of that guideline.  Do you really think this is what Madison intended?

IT’S CAVEAT EMPTOR TIME AGAIN!

Face it, advertisements ‘pitch’ candidates.  That’s right, candidates are selling themselves to us, or discrediting their opponents in an effort to sell themselves to us.  Let the Buyer Beware.

This appears to be the one time, politics has become ‘non-partisan.’  Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and pundits alike, want the right to put their ‘spin’ on truth.  Here’s how it works.  Generally, the ad begins with a nugget of honesty, which is then manipulated using indiscernible and dubious logic to convey something that isn’t remotely accurate.  The ads are played over and over, ad nauseam, the theory being that if you hear it once, it’s possibly true; if you hear it twice it’s probably true; and if you hear it three times it MUST BE TRUE!

You can check facts in ads at sites such as Politifact.com and FactCheck.org.  I particularly like Politifact.com because it rates comments as follows (the last one is my favorite):

1)   True

2)   Mostly True

3)   Half True

4)   Mostly False

5)   False

6)   PANTS ON FIRE!

We’re all busy just trying to live our lives, so the majority of people will hear what is said and not check a thing.  Even more depressing is the first thing heard is often the one thing remembered.

Fortunately, you can control much of this with the aid of your DVD and remote control mute button.  That’s what I do.  And if I’m busy in the kitchen, cooking up  a spectacular recipe, I turn off the radio and TV and listen to music.  No background crap for me, and I get infinite pleasure knowing that the candidates have spent a fortune on advertising which is wasted on me.

However at the end of the day, I still give pause and think about James Madison and how much this country meant to him.  Our fourth President of the United States was a man known for his  ethics, integrity and honesty.  I don’t think he would like politics as played out today.  If you’re in the vicinity of Montpelier, Virginia, and you feel the earth-shaking, it just may be James rolling over in his grave.

 

 

A Funny Thing Happened During Meditation….

A Funny Thing Happened During Meditation….

by sharwrite ♥ 3 Comments

As I mentioned in a previous post, years ago my girlfriend and I took a yoga class.  It was in the evening at a local high school.

The final pose in the class was dedicated to meditation.  Our teacher had an incredibly soothing voice and  instructed us to flex then relax muscles, starting at our head and working down to our feet.  Then, using ‘guided meditation,’ she took us on a journey describing an idyllic place.  As she spoke, I could visualize a beautiful hillside above a lake.  I could hear the movement of the water, the only other sound was my breathing.  I could smell the grass and feel the warmth of the sun.  It was a perfect moment of tranquility.  I was mindful of her words as I focused on the moment.

“Now you are floating on a cloud.  As you look down, you can see yourself lying on the grass, you can see the clouds mirrored in the lake.  You are at peace.”

And then, THE END OF CLASS BELL CLANGED.

OMG!  WHAT IN THE HECK WAS THAT?

I sat up and looked around.  Where was my lake?  Where was the sun?  Where was the grass?  That wonderful, blissful peaceful moment was gone.

Once home it was back to  the mundane, clean up the kitchen, finish some laundry, make sure all was ready for tomorrow, and then time for sleep.

The following morning my alarm went off.  I sat up in bed.  The sheets were a grassy green, the walls a pale yellow.  Confused I thought, “where the heck am I?” Then, “wait a minute, WHO AM I?”  I just sat there looking at the unfamiliar, unaware of who or where I was.  I don’t think it lasted more than 30 seconds — however, it was the longest 30 seconds of my life.

I worked at a large medical center and while eating lunch, I mentioned what had happened to a friend (who also happened to be a psychiatrist).  “Wasn’t that weird?  I’ve never awakened not knowing where I was, much less who I was.”

“What did you do last night?”

“Went to a yoga class with Ro.”

“Did anything unusual happen?”

“Not really, oh the damn bell went off right in the middle of meditation.”

“Really, was the teacher guiding you through meditation?”

“Well yes, she was talking about our lying in the grass, and then we were up in a cloud looking at our body beneath us, and then the bell went off.”

Hmmm, ANOTHER BELL JUST WENT OFF!  Yep, it was a post hypnotic suggestion.

Last Thursday a friend at Toastmasters was telling me about her Yoga class.  She couldn’t find enough superlatives to describe it.  I was pretty candid about my experiences, but she invited me to her class anyway — me, with the broken toe and the post hypnotic suggestion.  More unbelievable, was my response.  I said, “Yes.”  Should I survive, I’ll let you know how it goes!