Leaders, Kings and Fools - I'm More Comfortable as a Fool

In the old days, when we were first gathering together for safety as a species, we pulled together for safety. We wanted strong people who would be able to go hunting for prey so that we could eat, but we also wanted sharp-eyed people with lesser brute strength who could spot edible plants and useful plants, as well as watering holes. Over time, settlements developed and people began to specialize in various areas - hunter, farmer, shepherd, healer. Finally, when someone stepped out enough or the need presented itself, the jobs of "leader" or "Head" or even "King" came about. 

Pompous leaders. Why do we continue to elect them? Possibly
because anyone with common sense would never run for
office? 

Now, this is only my own opinion, but anyone actively seeking the position at the top of the food chain, probably doesn't deserve to be there. Kings, various Leaders, Heads or Dictators have a tendency to aggravate other nearby people with similar titles which leads to wars of words, and finally wars of people. It's rarely the Heads, Kings or Leaders who are killed in the wars, it's everyone else who had the bad luck to be under that leader's rule or influence. 

Nothing can reflect "pompous" much better than a cat, and this
lovely specimen has the look completely nailed! 

So ... why raise up a topic like this? Because I'm none-to-fond of our leaders today. I don't like the person who is in "charge" of the nation, but I don't like those standing in the wings either. I don't like much of the Congress, I don't like many of the Governors, and I'm none-to-fond of many of the mayors. I ask, "Whose interests are they really trying to protect? What people are they looking out after? Why this one and not that one?" and I don't come up with good answers. 

The book seems to have the appropriate ribbon bookmarks, but for
all we know, it could be anything. He never opened it, never actually
said a passage from it. It was totally a photo-op and was a really
poor showing all around. 

But I will tell you this, before signing off for the day. When I see our current "Leader" standing in front of a burning church with a religious book in his hands for a photo op, and he doesn't open the book, read from it, or apparently learn from it, I find one more instance why I don't respect him. It's shades of Hitler, and it's past annoying and into frightening. 

So, on that note, I'm, out of here for my day off - needed and deserved. I'll be back tomorrow and wish all of you an excellent day. 

Only One More Hurdle

At 8:00 am yesterday I had my store's main computer on Dale's workbench and he was pulling the hard drive. After some research he determined the size of replacement drive that would still be recognized by the BIOS, hooked the old and new drives up, and we began the arduous task of copying the data from my old 10MB (yes, that's MB) to a new 20MB hard drive. Dale and I settled down for a chat.

In these days of thumb drives and micro SD cards, people
forget how far and fast we've come. This ad is no joke.
Ten MB was high-capacity in the 1990's. 

We talked - about so many things - most not computer related. We got into his early days of building computers, his education, his travels. We touched on his family and then settled in for a long examination of comparative religions, human migration and linguistic patterns, and mythological similarities around the world. By this time is was 3-1/2 hours later and only 17% of the drive had been successfully copied over. I left, asking him to keep in touch and let me know how things were progressing.

Among the history we discussed, was the rise and rule
of Nimrod, aka Asher, the god-king of Babylon. It was
really fun to talk comparative religions with
someone who has actually done some serious
research in the topic. 

Meanwhile my staff was growling. It wasn't fun for them to have to hand-write each and every sale. I had visions of their possibly having to do so today as well, but Dale phoned at 5:30 pm with an update - we were up to 67% transfer. Finally, close to 9:00 pm, Dale phoned once more. We got the transfer accomplished, more than 12 hours after beginning it. He put the new hard drive into my computer and he said it booted up correctly.

I have a feeling there was a lot of red on my
hard drive because the "Ghost" program was
finding error after error. Dale will run a quick Scan
Disc of the new drive this morning to make sure
everything is OK before I pick the system up from him. 

I still don't know how badly my inventory program was corrupted - obviously there were a LOT of problems with that old drive. But I'll be at Dale's today at 8:00 am to pick my computer up and bring it back to the shop. So the final hurdle looms ahead. When I have it back in its home, (1) will it boot up and load my inventory program properly, and (2) will my slave computer that runs my cash register recognize it and talk to it appropriately?

Just one more day of crossing fingers. If my computers can
still talk to each other, I'll be back in business once again. 

One more day of crossing fingers, but one big hurdle overcome, and at least I'll be in air conditioning today. Yesterday was extremely hot and very humid. I was just dripping for most of the day. Here's hoping your Thursday goes well, and thanks for all of the positive thoughts. Please keep them going for one more day! *hugs* to all.

Public Art - Art For the Masses

Public art. It's all around us. Cities budget for their public art and some artists actually manage to put food into their kitchens because they are hired to produce public art. Why think about this on a Friday when my football team once again managed to pull out a hard-fought win? Well, an LJ friend recently took a short trip to Portugal with her son. One of the pictures she posted was of this magnificent piece of public art and it started my desire to do a quick photo blog. So here we go - an exploration of public art in some cities.

I like modern art as well as more traditional forms. This
piece really intrigues me, though. 

Here's what started me off. It's not her picture, but it is the image that she found so fascinating. What is it? Who knows. But it's really interesting with those spikes all over. Maybe it's the Shrike come to earth? Run for your lives.

Here are the pathways of the Superkilen in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

Here are pathways to follow as you run for your lives. The pathways are in the Superkilen, a park complex of three different focus uses in Copenhagen, Denmark. Here there are red, green and blue areas of the park, all joined with these winding pathways that take the visitor up and down hills and around vegetation.

"Cupid's Span" along the Embarcadero in San Francisco is intriguing. 

In San Francisco there are numerous public sculptures and of course, that iconic bridge. This sculpture caught my eye. Perhaps because I love archery, or maybe it's just the whimsical thought of being pinned to San Francisco, one of my favorite cities. It's called "Cupid's Span" and is located along the Embarcadero.

"Spoonbridge and Cherry" has become recognized world-wide as a visible
symbol of Minneapolis. 

That puts me in mind of our own Spoonbridge and Cherry from the sculpture garden outside of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. It's in storage right now while the park is being renovated, but it's become a recognizable symbol of Minneapolis over the years. Like most public art, it had vocal supporters as well as detractors when it was first erected, but since then has become part of the city's recognizable symbols.

It's always hard to do a photo blog, and my time is limited, so I'll have to stop here. I'd love to know if your town or city has any public art that has captured your interest. Let me know in comments or send me a link to a photo. In the meanwhile, I'm heading to the pool and then on to work. Have a wonderful and productive Friday.

Questioning Obesity - What is Your Perception?

Yesterday one of my LJ friends posted a very basic statement about obesity and perception. I want to pull that topic out and look at it a bit more closely today. 

Time to examine a topic of societal interest. Life isn't just fluff and bunnies, after all. 

The basic topic had been the increase in obese children and how it concerned him. All to the good! Obesity is a world-wide problem that will affect the health and well-being of 1000's of children and adults. He said the following paragraph: 

One has only to walk down the main street of this small town to see that a large percentage of children, teenagers and adults, especially females, are grossly over-weight. And the number seems to be growing. Why? Is it the wrong type of food, lack of exercise, or just plain laziness? It cannot be healthy and must at some stage become very embarrassing, especially for young girls.

(italics are my addition)

This is part of an advertising campaign for strongforlife.com. Obesity is a
problem at any age, but more children than ever are obese.  That
obesity is caused by many factors, though, not just the buffet line in the ad above. 

Now, I really don't have a problem with society perceiving obesity as an issue that is on the increase. My friend is absolutely correct - it is an epidemic in our modern society and the reasons for obese people are myriad. But I did call him to task about his words "especially females" and "especially for young girls". I called him on his terminology, because I think there are an equal number of obese males out there as females. His response was: 

Yes of course obesity and ballet are relevant to both sexes. I was very much aware of that as I was writing. ... But one must admit that one notices girls and women more than boys and men in both cases.

(once again, the italics are my addition)

Like father, like son? Obesity is not just environment and
food choices. Basic body type is genetic.
I will never be 5' 8" tall with a very low body mass index.
My personal genetic profile won't allow me to be
taller than 5' 6" and gives me a propensity to gain
weight in my midsection. 

I'm not posting this to embarrass my LJ friend at all. Some of what he was discussing truly merited comments and thought. But I am curious and throwing this out to my LJ friends. Do you notice obese females more readily than obese males? How about in children? Are the girls the first to catch your eye, or do you just notice all obese children and then mentally separate them by sex. 

Would you be more likely to ignore the weight of these
women if they were nicely dressed in finer clothing that
suits them more than the tank tops and denim? 

I do think that often obesity is forgiven and overlooked more often in males than in females. As a female who is overweight, perhaps I'm more conscious of it because I wish I was back to my weight of twenty years ago. But I've worked with obese males in the past, and their weight problems seem to often disappear under the carpet of a well-cut pinstriped suit. 

Santa Claus is one obese businessman who has made his
weight a positive instead of a negative. Can you imagine
an obese tooth fairy though? 

I know that obese children have a difficult time through school. My nephew was seriously overweight throughout school and was teased and ridiculed for years. He finally found acceptance on the football field where his weight was suddenly seen as an asset instead of a problem. 

So I ask all of you. Is society more apt to focus on an overweight female than a male? Are overweight males given more leeway and societal understanding for their physical appearance than a similarly overweight woman would be given? And how about you? Are you overweight? Have you ever received snubs or been ridiculed for your weight? I'm opening this topic to discussion, please share your experiences and feelings with me. 

Happy Friday! 

One Down, On to the Next

I'm going to start out by wishing my country, the USA, a Happy Flag Day. On this date in 1777 the "Stars and Stripes" were officially adopted as the flag of our nation. Through good times and bad, good decisions and very questionable ones, this flag has flown proudly. The US may or may not be the best nation on earth in your view. All I know is that I am pleased to be living here and consider myself lucky that I was able to.



So, on to more mundane things. I finished the final edits on my LOTR Community Story and turned it in yesterday afternoon. I missed the html codes for one italic and I'll have to edit it when it is made public tomorrow, but I'm pleased with how the story developed. Because I was alone in the house I had the chance to read it aloud as a final edit and once again, that was extremely helpful. It's hard for me to do that on most days, but Wednesdays lend themselves to more freedom of expression. So, one mountain peak photo to celebrate the attainment of one peak (goal).



I then had a chance to spend time and catch up with my beta duties. I got the next chapter done for my friend and sent it on to her. She might be on vacation now also because I haven't heard back from her, but whenever she gets a chance to review - it's no rush. I've been working with her now for 2-1/2 years and we've worked out a good give/take. So, one more mountain peak because I accomplished another goal for yesterday.



So now I can dive back into my AinA story. I love writing to a challenge, it usually spurs me on to spread my wings and broaden my horizons. My only concerns with any fic swap of this nature is the potential for disappointing the end receiver. So I am reading and re-reading to do my best to write a story that she will be happy to receive. And isn't that the goal of writing stories and novels anyway? Happy Thursday to all of you!

Happy Groundhog Day

I always feel a bit sorry for the poor groundhog. It is happily ensconsed in his den hibernating the winter away and here come people grasping it around the middle, pulling it out of the warm and cozy den, and subjecting it to lights and sounds unlike anything in the normal life of a groundhog. It is no wonder that they never look very happy, indeed, three years ago one bit the person handling it, biting off the tip of a finger. Go groundhog!

Those of you in other countries are probably shaking your heads just now. What is it about groundhogs, the US and February 2nd? Well, the folk legend is that you take the groundhog out of its den on the 2nd of February to see its shadow. If it sees its shadow, we'll have six more weeks of winter. If, however, it is overcast and the shadow is not visible, winter will end earlier.

Is the groundhog a good predictor of the future atmospheric events? Not really. As a prognosticator of weather it rates lower than 40% accuracy. Not very good at all :-) Be kind to your own resident rodents today in honor of the lowly groundhog.

Perspective

So, if you follow my blog, you just had two days of downer posts.  Not negative posts, but posts examining the worst of human nature instead of the best.  After all, my usual topics of conversation are not torture and 9-11.  So the question begs to be asked...where do we get the positive out of these negatives? 

I firmly believe that attitudes and beliefs can be changed.  We are artists.  Our work appeals to people on a visceral level.  People walking by a painting or a piece of jewelry don't stop and examine it carefully because of a calculated decision to stop at that location.  They stop and look because something in that piece speaks to their soul.  That's as it should be - art should speak to the soul.  And through our art we can influence people's thoughts into the positive or negative.  Think about art pieces that have caused thought, and controversy, over the years. 

Picasso's "Guernica".  If you haven't looked
carefully at it, Google or Bing it and take
a close look through the images.

Picasso's "Guernica" was his statement on the horrors of war.  It was his masterpiece and helped define him as an artist.  (In fact, I think it is one of the very few pieces that he created that was worth the accolades that it received.  But that's just my opinion.)  What counts here is the large number of people who have viewed this piece and who have come away from it thinking about the horror of war and how they could effect peace in their lives.  Art speaks. 

Andreas Serrano's controversial piece.  Would
he be as well known without having made this?

Another piece that speaks, although in a more controversial role, is Andreas Serrano's "Piss Christ" where he had a crucifix suspended in a jar of urine.  People were up in arms about this piece when it first debuted; for all I know, they still are.  It was considered disrespectful to put a symbol of God (to so many people) into a vat of human waste.  But it made people think.  Art speaks. 

So make your art speak.  But make it speak to the positive - the good in people, the beauty of our surroundings, and the positive hopes of mankind.  Perhaps our artwork will influence other positive thoughts and we will start a landslide of kindness instead of the constant barrage of negatives that seem to fill our world today. 

Hatred and Fear

People are afraid.  And, given the news lately, perhaps there is a basis for that fear.  Hatred of others who are different in any way seems to be rampant.  So here are two instances to think about. 

Are you afraid?  Maybe you have reason to be.

First of all, there is the Reverend Terry Jones and his on-again, off-again play to burn the Quran.  Why anyone would want to burn a book - any book - is beyond me, but to burn a book considered Holy by many of the residents of this world seems above the par of stupidity.  Whether or not you, personally, follow the Quran as your holy text, the book is not the problem.  The interpretation of that book by radicals, however, is the issue.  It is as much an issue as the interpretation of the Bible by radicals, or the Old Testament by radicals, or any other "holy" text by radicals.  It is radical believers who are the problem - they close their eyes and ears to any input save their own and believe that their personal interpretation is the only way.  Unfortunately, Jones heads a "church" - the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida.  Therefore, his narrow views can hurt more people than just himself. 

Ripples by Gregory Dolnikowski

And then there are the reports about torture of domestic workers behind closed doors in Saudi Arabia.  Saudi Arabia is one of our "allies", yet we, who supposedly are advocates of Human Rights, are turning our backs on verified cases of torture behind the closed doors of upper class Saudi society.  Check out the story of L.P. Ariyawathie who was hired as a maid, wanting to raise money to help her sick child.  She began working in May, and by the time she was deported back home for being unable to work effectively a few months later, her employer had hammered 24 nails and needles into her hands, legs and forehead.  I'm going to throw some more links (link #1, link #2, link #3, and a link to the article that first alerted me to the problem) up here so that you can examine this story in the world press and judge for yourself.   I am horrified at the inhumanity of mankind once again coming to the surface.  Every time I start to have hope that people are becoming kinder and gentler, something like this, or human slavery, or killing squads comes to my attention.  Evil exists in the world.  I don't usually use my blog to condem it, prefering to concentrate on positive images and feelings.  But sometimes it is necessary to face evil to understand the necessity of spreading love and kindness instead.  So today, pass goodness forward - spread ripples of peace - send love - prove that heinous acts like this are exceptions, not the rule, in human society. 

Live Your Walk

It is Easter weekend. It also happens to be the time of Passover. The two holidays don't always coincide, but this year they happened to. I was wished a "Happy Easter" by a friend yesterday and it occurred to me that I married an ex-Catholic and was raised by ex-Jews, and I am a happy, multi-cultural Pagan. I happily celebrate anything, so since I love fish and my DH enjoys some of the outward tableau of his former religion, we eat fish on Fridays during Lent. It's wonderful - I get fish on Fridays which I love, he gets to feel more rightious (or however it makes him feel). At Passover time, I think about the Exodus from Egypt - the cup left for Elijah, the matzoh, the salt water and bitter roots, the wonderful food and the gathering of family. We didn't celebrate Passover every year, but we celebrated it often enough that I have fond memories of nights spent with family, friends, and even people who I had never met before that night, celebrating the events that had happened 1000's of years earlier. We don't often have memories that span that timespan. But both Easter and Passover do.

I am sure that other religions also have celebrations whose origins go back centuries. In many ways these are the only things that push our racial memories past a few hundred years because our active memories are short - very short. It is one of the reasons that we keep making the same mistakes over and over again - we are slow learners and we don't seem able to learn from our past. Additionally, evil is very present in the world. It will keep going through every open crack, infecting all that it touches. So how can we keep memory alive and evil at bay?

What can we, as artists, do to celebrate millenia and fight evil? After all, we're "just" jewelers, painters, authors, potters, beaders.... We can create with a song in our heart. We can make items that will bring smiles to people. We can make things that will make people think, but with this type of art we must be careful to not fall into the trap of making "statement art" - art that will only make sense while its' statement is understood and culturally relevant. The best art is that which spans the ages and still pleases the mind and the imagination. So what are you creating today? If you make it with joy and in the realization that, given every option to spend your time however you wish there is nothing more that you want to do but create this piece, right here, right now; then that joy will spread past the piece, go to those who will look at your piece, and will finally reside with the ultimate owner. And isn't that joy the best reason to create? Happy Weekend to all of you.

Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th is usually a fairly lucky day for me, although there are certainly people who will stay home on this date. I don't have that luxury, but haven't really noticed any reason to do so either. I don't have any cats right now, but the ones I have had in the past have all been black, and I don't have a problem walking under ladders and mirrors sometimes break. In other words, I don't subscribe to general superstitions.

Sometimes habits can become ingrained into a person and become personal superstitions. Turning in a particular direction, starting to go down or up stairs with a particular foot (i.e., either the right or left foot is preferred), or wearing a particular piece of clothing when attending the games of a favorite sports team are common personal superstitions. But as a creative person, utilizing personal superstitions can lead you into a rut. My suggestion for the day is for you to do at least ten things differently - if you normally always turn to the right, turn to the left at least once. Try writing with your off-hand (you will find it easier to do this if you write mirror-script like DaVinci). I will try to use my left hand more often with the cash register today. Every thing that you do a little bit differently will raise your awareness of the NOW and dig you out of that rut to allow your creativity to flourish in the daylight instead of in the shadows.

Housecleaning Sucks!

Well, that heading really says it all. Sunday was a day of cleaning. I'm not really sure what DH did (except complain about how he was unable to clean his stuff out of the den because there was no room), but I scrubbed the downstairs bathroom to within an inch of its' life. At least it was good exercise for my broken arm (which is getting better every day). I got the shower absolutely beautiful and some of the floor washed, but I still need to scrub the toilet and wash the rest of the floor. I ran out of energy :-)

I'm still thinking about things that would equate with cultural symbology. I've taken to mentioning the topic to many people and seeing if there is anything that they mention that I haven't already thought about. But it's becoming clear that I will have to choose my items based on my own personal symbology and that, often, is so far outside the mainstream that it doesn't get recognized as legitimate. Oh well, I don't expect a culture based on the current dieties to understand my personal beliefs but I can't turn my back on my beliefs either. This should be an interesting exercise. Unfortunately I have several repairs on my bench that have to be made before I can begin on any new projects.

Today starts a new week. Try to life in a full and creative manner with the wide eyed wonder of a five-year-old witnessing her first rainbow :-)