Today marks the anniversary of a day in our lives that turned everything we know and hold sacred wrong-side out. We have, over the years, grieved, feared, lashed out in anger, wept, and hopefully listened to the wisdom that any tragedy in our lives imparts. In listening to the wisdom, we have to move forward. Anger must cease; hatred must not take all our energies. We now realize that our country (nor we) are invincible; as a result, we can become wider in our scope of how to be a citizen of the world.
Most importantly, perhaps, is that we need to realize that there is good in all groups, creeds, religions. To mark this complicated time in history, I've started reading the book Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. This man chose to deal with the horrific events by building understanding as well as schools for the children of the Taliban, so they might have a life of pure learning, not patterned hatred.
Our greatest commandment is to "love one another"; we were never promised this would be easy. But then again, the easy road will never lead to wisdom.
Life IS change...listen to the wisdom.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
An Evening of Firsts
Tonight is certainly going to be interesting and hopefully successful on the 50 Adventures at 50 front. After some research, I put together the first of several Irish meals. It's been quite the adventure so far; I've been to both
Borders and Barnes and Noble to take a peek at their collection of Irish cookbooks. It didn't take long--there aren't any. All the bazillion of cookbooks at both places and when I look, they go from Indian to Italian...no Irish. And in our area where Scots, Irish, and English is a strong orientation, it seems very odd indeed. So, I went to my source--the Internet. As I cook I also hope to learn from Domini Kemp of the Irish Times who has kindly consented to be the occasional guide as I go through the process.
My second "quest" is to work remotely with #1 son to do data recovery on Tom's crashed laptop and my asthmatic, queasy work laptop. It's extremely interesting to see the inner workings
of those machines. One of the 50 Adventures is to learn simple repairs...SIMPLE?!? The good news...as I write this, the Spinrite is running along on Tom's computer and the 'ol codger (my work computer) is next on the list. The adventure continues at Weismanhaus.
Borders and Barnes and Noble to take a peek at their collection of Irish cookbooks. It didn't take long--there aren't any. All the bazillion of cookbooks at both places and when I look, they go from Indian to Italian...no Irish. And in our area where Scots, Irish, and English is a strong orientation, it seems very odd indeed. So, I went to my source--the Internet. As I cook I also hope to learn from Domini Kemp of the Irish Times who has kindly consented to be the occasional guide as I go through the process.
My second "quest" is to work remotely with #1 son to do data recovery on Tom's crashed laptop and my asthmatic, queasy work laptop. It's extremely interesting to see the inner workings
of those machines. One of the 50 Adventures is to learn simple repairs...SIMPLE?!? The good news...as I write this, the Spinrite is running along on Tom's computer and the 'ol codger (my work computer) is next on the list. The adventure continues at Weismanhaus.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
And the Site Goes On...
Say what you will about Google, but they do have some good stuff in their toy box for us to play with...and for free! I don't know about you, but free is the right price for me...especially when I'm practicing.
If any of you out there are feeling like you'd like to take on the challenge of creating your own simple website, just go to Google Sites and there you can find all kinds of great tools to help you along with some neat backgrounds, gadgets, and all kinds of easy steps to help you make something half way decent.
My main goal was to find something that would house all my various blogs. I'm kind of a compartmental freak and like things in neat piles where I don't have to think about continually looking for them. This does just that for me. It also gives me a place to keep attention drawn to Heifer, The Smile Train, and Jill's House--three important organizations in my life.
As I keep working along in developing the site, it's my hope to have all roads leading to my site, Tina's Busy Brain...appropriate, eh? LOL
If you'd like to play with a site of your own, just go to Google; from there, if you don't have a google account you'll need one. It will only take a few minutes and then feel free to play to your heart's content!
Keep us posted on the comments how you're doing.
I'll let you know when the unveiling of Tina's Busy Brain will be :).
If any of you out there are feeling like you'd like to take on the challenge of creating your own simple website, just go to Google Sites and there you can find all kinds of great tools to help you along with some neat backgrounds, gadgets, and all kinds of easy steps to help you make something half way decent.
My main goal was to find something that would house all my various blogs. I'm kind of a compartmental freak and like things in neat piles where I don't have to think about continually looking for them. This does just that for me. It also gives me a place to keep attention drawn to Heifer, The Smile Train, and Jill's House--three important organizations in my life.
As I keep working along in developing the site, it's my hope to have all roads leading to my site, Tina's Busy Brain...appropriate, eh? LOL
If you'd like to play with a site of your own, just go to Google; from there, if you don't have a google account you'll need one. It will only take a few minutes and then feel free to play to your heart's content!
Keep us posted on the comments how you're doing.
I'll let you know when the unveiling of Tina's Busy Brain will be :).
Monday, September 6, 2010
Labor Day: New Beginnings...Again
I just realized something...for the past two years on Labor Day, I have found my fall/winter hairstyle. Is that not the most random thing you've heard today? But then again, Labor Day is famous for marking changes...
I don't normally think of a warm day in the early part of September as a beginning, but in many ways I guess it truly is on our internal clocks. Schools (don't get us started) for many many years didn't begin until the day after Labor Day, so that hastened a new year; to the true traditionalists, the white purses, shoes, pants, and skirts were put away on Labor Day to hasten a new season of off-white and beige; before modern farming practices tied in with little global warming, farmers would start turning their thoughts to harvest, creating a new season. So, I guess we could almost say "Happy New Season" as much as "Happy Labor Day".
Of course, Labor Day itself is marked for bringing the American worker and working conditions into a more sane place. No more child labor, no more death-defying machinery, no more 12 hour work days...hhhmmm...I think we've come full circle on that one :).
I did read an interesting statistic from Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post. The fastest growing jobs in the future? Well, nursing of course (we babyboomers do have our needs) and network systems and data communication analysts. I find that exciting that as long as we have our minds and our gumption to learn, we can still be a valuable part of the workforce for years to come. I hope to find myself actively computing for many years to come...via la Labor force!
So, cheers to my fellow laborers, whatever your labor of choice may be and cheers to the changes this time of year brings.
Oh, and the hairstyle? A mid-century marvel to be sure. Hopefully I an talk this head of hair into becoming a smooth, longish 50s style I spotted this morning in. I consider myself especially fortunate to have a dear friend and very talented stylist in NY in whom I can ask "does this work?" Happy news...he said "Without a doubt." Thanks, Eddie :).
I don't normally think of a warm day in the early part of September as a beginning, but in many ways I guess it truly is on our internal clocks. Schools (don't get us started) for many many years didn't begin until the day after Labor Day, so that hastened a new year; to the true traditionalists, the white purses, shoes, pants, and skirts were put away on Labor Day to hasten a new season of off-white and beige; before modern farming practices tied in with little global warming, farmers would start turning their thoughts to harvest, creating a new season. So, I guess we could almost say "Happy New Season" as much as "Happy Labor Day".
Of course, Labor Day itself is marked for bringing the American worker and working conditions into a more sane place. No more child labor, no more death-defying machinery, no more 12 hour work days...hhhmmm...I think we've come full circle on that one :).
I did read an interesting statistic from Valerie Strauss in the Washington Post. The fastest growing jobs in the future? Well, nursing of course (we babyboomers do have our needs) and network systems and data communication analysts. I find that exciting that as long as we have our minds and our gumption to learn, we can still be a valuable part of the workforce for years to come. I hope to find myself actively computing for many years to come...via la Labor force!
So, cheers to my fellow laborers, whatever your labor of choice may be and cheers to the changes this time of year brings.
Oh, and the hairstyle? A mid-century marvel to be sure. Hopefully I an talk this head of hair into becoming a smooth, longish 50s style I spotted this morning in. I consider myself especially fortunate to have a dear friend and very talented stylist in NY in whom I can ask "does this work?" Happy news...he said "Without a doubt." Thanks, Eddie :).
Sunday, September 5, 2010
And the Web Site Build Begins...
#1 son came to brunch this morning for a day visit to see us and his grandparents. It's always a pleasure to see that smiling face come through the door, and today was no exception. After omelets, bacon, sausage, potatoes, toast, juice, and a few cups of coffee, we all settled in as we normally do...with our laptops. This may sound odd, but this is pretty much how we share ideas, converse, and visit. It's really pretty neat; it is definitely a learning experience every time it happens here at Weismanhaus.
Today was no exception; by the end of our visit as we were saying our good-byes, I was convinced that I could start building a website, one of the top items on the list of 50 Adventures at 50. So, after a bit of cross-wording and a nap, I began. I've now gone through about 4 layers of "I'm stuck" and "No, there it is". Up to this point I have the basics at hand--a background, some font that satisfies, and an increased vocabulary of words that I didn't know existed when I woke up this morning. The plan is that by the end of this adventurous year I'll have a central location for all this discovery. I think I've aptly named it: Tina's Busy Mind. That seemed to fit the bill at the present time.
Today was no exception; by the end of our visit as we were saying our good-byes, I was convinced that I could start building a website, one of the top items on the list of 50 Adventures at 50. So, after a bit of cross-wording and a nap, I began. I've now gone through about 4 layers of "I'm stuck" and "No, there it is". Up to this point I have the basics at hand--a background, some font that satisfies, and an increased vocabulary of words that I didn't know existed when I woke up this morning. The plan is that by the end of this adventurous year I'll have a central location for all this discovery. I think I've aptly named it: Tina's Busy Mind. That seemed to fit the bill at the present time.
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