Wooo Hoooo!

Just got an email from the drum instructor.
We're having a drum session on the 8th!!
Drumming is the best way to get the brain cranking out the ideas!

Can hardly wait!!

Wild Horses

Today is the first time I actually listened to the words of this Natasha Bedingfield song.
The lyrics and music are wonderful and the sentiment perfect for where I find myself lately!!

Great Quote!!

Malicious talk, therefore, is a serious and troublesome matter, for it is the sustenance and recreation of some people. You should not, however, accept empty hearsay, lest you become a receptacle for other people’s evils.

Keep your own soul unlettered. For, by accepting the foul-smelling garbage of words, you will introduce stains to your prayer through your thoughts, and without cause you will hate your associates.

- Life of Syncletica
Quoted in Essential Monastic Wisdom: Writings on the Contemplative Life by Hugh Feiss.

From Sojourners Verse and Voice http://www.sojo.net/

Mystery Invitation

Last week I received a voice mail from a woman I'd never heard of, with an invitation to show at an art & crafts show, in a neighboring town, benefiting an organization I'd never heard of.

Today I returned the call and spoke with one of the co-chairs of the event. I've never heard of her either. Our conversation was quite funny because I was trying to get across the fact that I knew nothing about this event except the date but she wasn't quite getting it.

Our talk went something like this:

Her: .......oh, so you know June
Me: No, I don't know June. I don't know how I got on your list. I just got a phone call from Darlene
Her: Oh, you know Darlene...
Me: No, I don't know Darlene. She said she got the list from June.
Her: Oh, so it's June you know...
Me: No, I don't know anyone. I'm not even sure how I got on your list. I've never even heard of your organization. I just got a voice mail asking if I'd be interested in this show, so I called back.
Her: Oh, you haven't spoken to anyone.
Me: Yes, I spoke with Darlene. She told me the date and the place but she didn't know the details, like the size of tables and the time of the show.
Her: Oh, you know Darlene.
Me: No, I don't know Darlene. She called me, left me a voice mail. I called back, she told me the date and time and told me to call you for more details. So I'm calling you.
Her: Oh, so you don't know anything about this.

I kid you not....that's how the conversation went!! After all that, I found out that this is the first year this group is doing an arts show. Prior years they've done silent auctions. They have a "huge" turnout (wonder what that means exactly), there's a potluck at the same time, and the food is really good!

Frankly, that last line sold me.

So, I'm going to put my stuff up for sale to benefit an organization I've never heard of, at a place where I don't know anyone, and for I don't know for how long, or what time exactly (they haven't worked that out yet) or how many people will be there!!

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!


Thanks to whomever gave my name and number to whomever you gave it to!!

Dia De Muertos

Went to my first ever Dia De Muertos celebration tonight. Which is odd, seeing how I grew up in a part of the US that is mostly hispanic. For years, I've considered the skulls, skeletons and costumes as something evil to be avoided. This year I decided that was stupid. To be afraid of pissing off God or the church or whomever, by refusing to have a good time with those in my community just because someone else said it was bad. Had to check it out for myself...

Turns out it was a GREAT time with dancing, music, food, art, celebration, color, fun and laughter with loads of people from the community. Tonight's party was the kick off to a week long festival celebrating the lives of those that have gone before us.

Instead of being evil or scary as I'd always been warned, it was quite funny to see ghosts, skeletons and "spirits" dancing a jig!! It took the fright out of death and put the emphasis of joy into life.

Best part of the whole evening was when a 91 year old woman, won the costume contest!!! The crowd roared it's approval at her laughing at the face of death! It was fantastic to watch her dance around, wearing a full black dress, hat and painted face! Amazing!

Next weekend will be even better!! There's a community wide offerena (rememberance altar) where I plan on adding pictures of my dad, my grandparents and the couple that lived next door to my parents for my entire life. Those are the people I want to honor, and celebrate this year.

There will be a parade and then parties in various places in town. I'm going to hit as many of them as possible!!

Viva Los Muertos!


Image from a mousepad which can be purchased here:
http://VistaLatina.etsy.com.

My inner European

Your Inner European is Irish!

Sprited and boisterous! You drink everyone under the table.

Who's Your Inner European?

Budgeting Blahs!

In an effort to get enough class hours under my belt to qualify for the PMI certification, I'm taking a Budgeting and Resource Management class right now. Thought I'd share a little of what the textbook says on this subject.

and I quote

"Blah, blah, blah, blah, costs, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, expenses, blah, blah, blah, senior management decides, blah, blah, blah, investments,blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, over runs, blah, blah cash flow, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah..."

for 289 pages....

Well, that's what it looks like to me anyway!

The mathematical formulas look like graffiti and the software is unintelligible.

Where's the "soft skills", the people management, creative thinking etc...that's the stuff all textbooks should be made of. Who the heck thought this stuff up??

OK, I feel better now! Still don't understand a damn thing the book is saying, but at least I feel better about my ignorance, having gotten it off my chest. ;-)

Sunday Funnies

A classic in honor of the playoffs tonight!

Retailing...

Took 3 journals with one of my images over to the coffeeshop today and we put a price of $10.99 on them to see if they'll sell at that price. The shop has the worse set up for sales like this in the world. They use an old, non-working, deli case to display people's wares. That's all well and good...the problem is, they have a huge table sitting right in front of the display case so no one can get over there to see what's for sale. There's also the world's messiest table next to it so that's distracting. There's all kinds of junk (papers, CDs, telephone books) etc sitting on that table...but it's not being used for anything good. It just looks cluttered.

Of course, no matter what any of us tell the owner, he agrees while we're there, and then puts it right back the way it was as soon as we leave. ugggggggh.

Oh well, some day he'll figure it out....

In the meantime, if someone really, really skinny wants to squeeze between the seats and the table to get to the display counter....maybe they'll buy one of my journals!

ELSEWHERES

I'm absolutely in love with this site!
They have the coolest stuff for sell from independent designers. Not only is the stuff uber cool, but the prices are quite reasonable too. Getting lots of good ideas just looking at the wares. Check it out!

http://www.elsewares.com/commerce/index.php

Sunday Funnies

Holy chalk dust Batman, that's awesome!

found it here: http://www.funnyjunk.com/

Point to Ponder

Have lots of thoughts about the habit of cynicism, but I also have the beginnings of a nasty cold, so for right now, this quote I ran across today will have to do.

"The opposite of creavtivity is cynicism" - Esa Saarinen

Phone Order!

Just got a phone call from someone who saw my work down at the coffeeshop and wants to purchase one of my pieces. He said that he saw a copy of it down there with a "sold" sign on it but he'd still like a copy so he called.

AWESOME!

That's 4 (that I know of) prints sold at the coffeeshop now. Feeling pretty good about my decision to show stuff there!

Someday I Will - Jimmy Buffett

I see a white sail

skipping 'cross a blue bay
and I say Someday I Will
I see a young man
strumming on a green guitar
and I say Someday I Will

I don't have a plan
It's not that kind of thing
I'm not Martin Luther King
I don't have a dream
It's just sometimes I know
That's the way I'm supposed to go

I see a flying boat
and I get a lump in my throat
and I say Someday I Will
Someday

So whatever thrills you
Anything you love to do
Just say someday I will
Don't need to know who
May help you make it come true
Just say someday I will

Don't have to work it all out
Don't have to tear it all apart
All you need's a place to start
And if it never worked before
Try it just once more
That's what your heart is for

Whether it's big or small
If you have a passion at all
Just say, someday I will
Someday
Someday I will
Someday

Today

Memory Loss

Arrrrrrrrrgh!!

The other day I posted on someone's blog about the new NBC show "Journeyman". I was on about how the lead actor mumbles so much I can't hardly make out what he's saying. I really wanted to know what the person who's blog I left that note on thought of the mumbling.....but I can't for the life of me remember who the heck's blog that was or how the heck I got to it in the first place.

Dang it!! If only I could travel back in time like on that show! The guy probably told exactly how he did it and I couldn't hear him!! DRAT!

Anyway, if it was your blog and you've found your way over here...could you point me back to where we started??

Cheers!

Free Burma

International Blogger's Day for Burma
http://www2.free-burma.org/index.php

American Idiot

Just give the guy back his leg already. Sheeeeeeesssshhhhhh!

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20071003/tod-us-offbeat-leg-f62056d_1.html

Are you kidding me?

Now it's the fault of the US and the EU that terrorist (that's what they are) went into the AU peacekeeping camps and killed at least 20 people??

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20071002/tts-uk-sudan-darfur-cff01a2_1.html

Last week I went to see the documentary film "The Devil Came On Horseback".
http://www.thedevilcameonhorseback.com/

It's about US Marine' Captain Brian Steidle's 6 month experience working as part of an AU team investigating the attacks on villages throughout the region. The people were slaughtered, there's no other word for it. The film presents graphic visual evidence of the atrocities in that country as well as describes some 80 reports that were sent up through the bureaucratic channels to "who knows where".

The US embassy received 4 of them.

In one particularly poignant scene, the one I'll remember long after I forget the rest I'm sure, Captain Steidle talks about how he and his crew had calculated, based on previous patterns and the direction the terrorists were traveling, which village would be attacked next. They wanted to protect the village but were not given the resources by their new commanding officer. Instead, they were just permitted to fly over the village while it was in the process of being burned to the ground. Torched, one home at a time.

As soon as they saw the helicopter, those setting the village ablaze piled into 2 trucks and drove off. All Captain Steidle and his companions could do was take their pictures as they weren't issued guns even to protect themselves let alone the villagers.

During that portion of the film, he spoke about how utterly helpless he felt at that moment. I felt it too. The producers of the film put that scene together so that, as he told the story, we looked at the photographs he shot that day. Pickup trucks, filled with masked men holding guns, driving away down an isolated dirt road in the desert. The same exact scene that is included in nearly every Hollywood "action adventure" film!

We all know the very next scene is supposed to be of the hero taking out a huge missile launcher and blowing the bad guys to smithereens, saving the elated villagers who then throw a massive party to celebrate. That's the way it supposed to happen.

It's not supposed to be a US trained Marine captain, armed only with a camera, shooting frame after frame as they get away. Nor, is it supposed to be that same US Marine Captain going back hours later, to film the hacked up, burned and raped bodies of those left lying outside the looted and burned huts they once called home.

It's not supposed to happen like that!!

This week I told a friend a little about this movie and he said to remember the story of the starfish so I didn't start feeling hopeless. I wasn't quite sure what he meant. In the story, a young child goes to the beach at low tide and starts picking up starfish, throwing them back into the sea. An adult comes by and asks the child what she's doing, what she's doing isn't going to make any difference, there's too many starfish, she can't possibly save them all. "It makes a difference to this one" the child says as she picks up another and tosses it back to the sea.

What did that have to do with Dafur?

I thought his point was that at least something was being done to help at least one person in Dafur, but now I think he meant something much different. I think he was saying that although we, individually, can't do something to save the people of Dafur, we can all do some thing about something some where and we should!

Perhaps he's right, all I can do to help the people of Dafur, is to spread the word that something TERRIBLE is happening there and that We as a nation, and as a generation who is supposed to have learned from the history of too many genocides before, aren't doing anything about this one. The consequences of that apathy rests on all our heads!

It most certainly rests on the heads of those in the Sudanese government, that have not only refused to admit there was a genocide happening in their country, but as the film alleges, are supplying the arms and training to those who are decimating their own people.

This current raid, and the blame game that is sure to follow, is just further evidence of a world gone crazy! Where innocents are slaughtered while the rest of the world blames each other and does nothing about it.