New Career?

Miscellaneous Questions

1. Who or what are you named after? A. Nobody, really.

2. Last time you cried? A. Close to Christmas.

3. Do you like your handwriting? A. No. It's so bad, I could be a doctor.

4. What is your favorite lunch meat? A. Honey ham.

5. Do you have kids? A. No.

6. Do you use sarcasm? A. What, do you think I am some sort of linguist?

7. Do you still have your tonsils? A. No.

8. Would you bungee jump? A. Not at this age. Maybe when I was younger.

9. What is your favorite kind of cereal? A. Rice Krispies.

10. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? A. Most of the time.

11. Do you think you're strong? A. Not physically, but mentally.

12. What is your favorite ice cream? A. I don't eat ice cream.

13. What is the first thing you notice about someone? A. Eyes and/or hair.

14. What do you do to relax? A. Write, read, play guitar, color.

15. What is the least favorite thing you like about yourself? A. I'm overweight.

16. What color pants are you wearing? A. Blue.

17. Last thing you ate? A. An oatmeal cookie.

18. What are you listening to right now? A. The hum of the heater, clocks ticking, my fingers on the keyboard.

19. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? A. Violet.

20. Favorite smell? A. Cookies baking.

21. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? A. My husband.

22. Favorite sport to watch on TV? A. Women's tennis.

23. Hair color? A. Brown with soft white (aka gray).

24. Eye color? A. Hazel.

25. Favorite food to eat? A. Chocolate.

26. Scary movies or happy? A. Happy.

27. Last movie you watched? A. The Fellowship of the Ring.

28. What color shirt are you wearing? A. Yellow.

29. Favorite holiday? A. Halloween.

30. Wine or beer? A. I don't drink.

Stupid Questions

1. What was the last thing you put in your mouth?

A. A homeopathic remedy I use to keep colds and the flu at bay. And tea.

2. Where was you profile picture taken?

A. At an art professor's house in 2012.

3. Do you play Pokemon Go?

A. No.

4. Name someone who made you laugh recently?

A. My chiropractor.

5. How late did you stay up last night?

A. I went to bed at 10 p.m.

6. If you could move somewhere else where would it be?

A. Tuscan, Italy. Someplace warm.

7. Ever been kissed under the fireworks?

A. Yes.

8. Which of your closest friends live close?

A. Several of them are all about the same distance away.

9. Do you believe ex's can be friends?

A. I think it could happen but I can't say I've actually seen it work.

10. How do you feel about Dr. Pepper?

A. It used to be the only cola I would drink, but I stopped drinking soft drinks.

11. When was the last time you cried?

A. Saturday. Today.
 
12. Who took your profile picture?

A. An art student from Hollins. I do not know her name.

13. Who was the last person you took a picture/video of?

A. My husband.

14. Was today better than yesterday?

A. Yes, in some ways.

15. Can you live a day without TV?

A. I live most days without much TV, so I think so.

16. Are you upset about anything?

A. Yes. I have a friend in the hospital. I am very concerned about her. *Update* My friend passed away.

17. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it? 

A. Humans are social creatures. Even the most introverted of us need a friendly face every now and then.

18. If you could have any job/career, which would choose?

A. I enjoyed writing and would like to continue in that field, although I suppose I will be rounded up by the incoming authoritarian government at some point.

19. Are you a bad influence?

A. That depends on who I am influencing, I think. I am basically a decent human being who tries to be kind to everyone. If you don't want to be a nice person, then I would be a bad influence.

Fantasy R Us

Do not anger dragons,

 for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

 

 

Post-Election

And now we are truly under the rule of lesser men.


HILLARY CLINTON WON THE POPULAR VOTE. But she did not win the election.

This One's For You, Mary Johnston

The hallowed halls of the Virginia General Assembly never heard such a speech as the one Mary Johnston gave before the learned politicos on January 19, 1912.

An advocate for a woman’s right to vote, Johnston, a Botetourt County native and by then a much-accomplished and well-respected author (she wrote To Have and To Hold, The Long Roll, Hagar, and 25 other books, a play or two, poetry, and short stories), told the legislatures that she paid $1,000 annually in taxes to the state, yet had no voice in how the revenue was spent.

Her family settled western Virginia and had fought in all of the country’s wars up to that time. Yet recent male immigrants, who knew nothing of democracy, she said, were treated as if they knew better than she what the interests of the state might be.

“We are asking that those who live under the laws of a state . . . may have something to do with the making of those laws,” Johnston said in another speech, this time before a meeting of governors. “We are asking that we who pay a very considerable portion of the taxes of the State and of the country may have a voice in the apportionment of those taxes. We are asking that we who work may have a say as to the conditions under which we work.”

For six years, Johnston gave up much of her life so that women could obtain the right to vote. She suffered from vicious personal attacks from anti-suffrage groups. She did not give up.

In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution gave women the right to vote. Now, 104 years after Johnston spoke before the Virginia General Assembly, and 96 years after women received the right to vote, a woman is on the ballot, running for president in one of the two major parties.

At this very moment, there are folks working to undermine a linchpin of democracy that 50 percent of you, male and female, black or white, apparently take for granted. Or did that hashtag #repealthe19th not catch your attention?

I voted for Secretary Clinton because she cannot be the crooked thief that she has been accused of being. If so, she must be the smartest crook alive, given that for 25 years she has withstood a constant barrage of hatred, vilification, smears, mudslinging, and investigations. Surely if there was something to the charges, somebody would have figured it out by now.

She is resilient. I admire that. She is intelligent. She is informed on the details of domestic and foreign policy. She is, in my opinion, the most highly-informed and best-trained person to ever run for the office of president. She may be hawkish on foreign policy, but I know from my work as a news reporter that people often change their minds when they take office. The view is different from the Oval Office.

Is she lily-white perfect? No. How could she be? Snow White doesn't stand a chance in this world - and you're never going to get a perfect person in the White House. Her character flaws are miniscule compared to those of her opponent. If a man were running with her flaws, he would be considered a saint.

I like Hillary Clinton because I have followed her career for many years. I've read autobiographies about her. I've also read the Democratic Party Platform, and I applaud it's goals. I read through the Republican Party Platform and not once did I see the word "art" in there. Maybe I missed it. But it is in the Democratic Party Platform, right in the table of contents, and art is important to me. Art makes for a better world. The lack of it makes misery.

DNC Platform:

"Promoting Arts and Culture
Democrats are proud of our support for arts funding and education. We are committed to continuing the policies and programs that have already done so much for our creative arts industry and economy. Investment in the arts strengthens our communities and contributes to our nation’s rich cultural heritage. We will continue to support public funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and for programs providing art and music education in primary and secondary schools. The entire nation prospers when we protect and promote the unique artistic and cultural contributions of the women and men who create and preserve our nation’s heritage." (page 21)

Mary Johnston, I think, would approve of my vote.

Review: Skyrim ReMastered

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition also called Skyrim: Remastered

Bethesda last week rolled out an improved version of Skyrim, its most popular role playing game. It is the fifth in the Elder Scrolls series. I have played Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim, but not the first two.

Skyrim is set in a world where there be dragons, and you are, should you choose to be, the Dragonborn, and thus the dragon slayer.

The thing about Skyrim, as well as other video games, is there is a story line. Most non-players do not understand that. It's not just shoot and kill, shoot and kill. There is a plot. There are morals (or not, your choice). The Elder Scrolls games in particular are immersive and non-linear, meaning you can roam about a detailed countryside, sit down in a bar and have a beer, and create your own story line if you want by simply ignoring the quests and storyline offered. (Some of the storylines need to be ignored - they are obviously written by 20-year-old boys who have spent too much time in their mother's basement.)

I have over 1,000 hours in the original Skyrim, which was released five years ago. Of course, some of that has been recovery time from my health issues, so it's time I may have spent at work or elsewhere had I been well. But I digress.

Skyrim 2015

Skyrim: Remastered is a better graphic version of Skyrim released five years ago. However, for PC users, it isn't much of an improvement. Fortunately, Bethesda released it for free to PC users - but other platforms have to purchase it.

Is it better? Sure. I suspect on a console, it is fantastic. I do not have a huge gaming computer, so I have to play on low-level graphics anyway, and even with that limitation, the graphics are better. There is no change in game play, though. The easter eggs remain, the ways to get things that are kind of cheats (but not) remain - and the dialogue is still screwed up in places. (I know this because I'm up to a level 19 character with 14 hours in the last week.)

Seriously, guys, if you were going to all of that trouble to re-release the game and call it "remastered," couldn't you have fixed the dialogue in Riften so that Bolli and the guy in the Pawned Prawn aren't married to the same woman? And couldn't that the quest in the Riften Hall of the Dead send you to the right place initially, not to Windhelm instead of Whiterun, where you are supposed to go? How could you re-release this game and not make those simple fixes? You're a big gaming company. Do you not have a proof reader or copy editor or something?

So far I have only played the vanilla version of Skyrim: Remastered. In the initial version, I generally played vanilla first and then attached a few mods, mostly multiple followers and a bat file that kept all of my NPCs from being killed by master vampires early in the game. I like having more than one follower - they are good for hauling loot and watching my back. And I hate it when my NPCs die. There aren't that many of them to begin with.

I have a tendency to create my own story line and immerse myself in the game world, looking at every shelf, reading all the books, building the houses - and it is good to have someone tackle the bandit who slips up on you from time to time.

That's the thing about Skyrim. It is a great interactive world. The AI is a bit long in the tooth as far as the NPCs go, but overall, it's very easy to say, "I'm going to play for 30 minutes" and two hours later you're wondering what happened and why you're still hunting for that darned dragon priest.

Bethesda now needs to put out Elder Scrolls VI, and move forward. Skyrim is having its second go-round - according to Facebook there are 180,000 people talking about it right now - but I am ready for a new story. I don't want to play online with other people. I want another game like this one, but with a new plot and a new land. Nirn (the world of the Elder Scrolls) is a big place. Let's explore more of it.

****

To answer an oft-asked question, yes, I am a female who plays video games. I have played video games since there were video games. I started out with Pong and moved on. I have a huge box full of 3.5 disks with most of the ID Software games, and I have all of the Age of Empire games, all of The Sims games, and I loved Might & Magic in all of its incarnations. And let's not forget Commander Keen, Wolfenstein, Myst, King's Quest (all of them), Fable, Dungeon Quest, and even NASCAR.

I do not play games that require me to interact with other people, because in my experience, it is hard to find other female players, and many guys are jerks. I know they're not all jerks, but the majority are, and I choose not to subject myself to that.

How many women play video games these days? And by that, I mean role playing games or online character games. Not just Words with Friends or Angry Birds. I play things like that, too, but those are different from an immersive RPG.

Still Here

I'm still here but I have been walking around watching the world and can't figure out my thoughts about the things I see.

When it all comes straight in my mind, hang tight.

In the meantime, here's a quote from Gandalf.

Click Click

Click click. Click click.

When I sit in my office without the radio on, or anything but the clocks ticking, I hear a clicking noise.

It seems to be coming from the area near my printer. I've heard it for days.

I can't find the noisemaker, though, nor pinpoint its exact location. I've moved things around, searching. I thought at first it was the air blowing from the units when the air conditioner turned on, hitting a piece of paper, perhaps, but no.

Click click. Click click.

Is it a bug? Something in the wall? A bird outside?

Tick tock. Tick tock. Those are the clocks on the wall.

Peck peck. Peck peck. That's my fingers on the keyboard.

Click click. Click click.

My mystery noise continues. I wonder, am I losing my mind?

Are termites eating my house?

Is there a snake in the wall?

Could it be a mouse?

Click click. Click click.

It doesn't sound like a mouse. Mice scurry. I know what a mouse sounds like.

They do not go click click.

Click click. Click click.

A snake would slither and bump, wouldn't it? And it wouldn't sound like it was in the metal hollow legs of the desk holding my printer.

Click click. Click click.

Click click. Click click.

Do termites make noise?

Click click. Click click.

If I disappear, I leave this post so you'll know that something grew large, and ate me.

Click click.

Under the Microscope

My blog has been around for 9 years - 10 in August. During that time I've received requests for people to do a guest blog post, or for me to review a book, or for me to join their "artistic workshop" gang, or what-have-you.

Mostly, I ignore those requests. If something seems personal and not a form letter sent to every blogger on the planet, I might respond back.

That is what happened about three weeks ago. I received a message from a Ph.D. student at University of Southern California who was "researching the personal experiences people write on the web about their everyday lives, and your blog came to my attention." He had the name of the blog right, for one thing, so I read on.

He said his study was an examination of "how the thoughts and experiences written by people like you on weblogs and other social media can be used to make conclusions about society as a whole. I am contacting you because I am trying to collect reliable data about bloggers’ opinions, experiences, and characteristics in order to refine and evaluate my analyses."

The student went on to include a link to a survey which would "correlate your responses to this survey with what you write about your life on your weblog."

I am always dubious about such matters, and while I realize everything I write in this space becomes public, I try to be careful about what I put on here. Stuff sneaks out, though.

Anyway, I wrote the student back asking how my blog came to be chosen, the criteria it met, and if the survey linked with the blog. I had also looked up the links for the section of the college for which this person was studying and noted they did things for the military, so I wanted to know if this would be used for the military in any fashion.

The student did not respond for several days, but ultimately did reply. " We’re interested in storytelling and the knowledge contained in stories. Several years ago, we wrote software to automatically find personal, non-fiction stories written on weblogs. It makes errors from time to time (confuses fiction with non-fiction, for instance) but for the most part it’s pretty good. Our software picked up your blog as one that these sorts of stories are posted to fairly often. I’ve emailed about 10,000 bloggers whose blogs also have a lot of personal stories posted to them (and have been getting a 8-10% response rate)," the student said.

In the email, the student went on to point out that there was no way for me to know who else might be studying my blog for whatever purpose. "The prevailing view among academics is that public web content and profiles are “fair game,”' the student noted. However, this person believed in notifying people that their blogs were being studied, which I appreciated.

He also said there was no military component involved with this study.

I have often wondered about the public nature of blogs. For all I know, my photos are being sold in Brazil and someone has taken my personal essays and turned them into an ebook and is selling it on Amazon. Not that I think I am that interesting, mind you, but some of my pictures aren't too bad and occasionally I write something that, if not spectacular, is thoughtful and articulate.

Since I felt like I was dealing with a real person, I decided to do the survey, which means I am taking part in this person's study. The survey questions seemed a little off-kilter politically to me, but since I am not entirely sure what the person is doing it is hard to know. Being a journalist my sense of "fair play" was aroused by the nature of some of the questions. There were a few questions that seemed too personal, and those I declined to answer. I think the questions were based on previous research and therefore deemed appropriate polling data (like, have I had the flu or did I get a flu shot).

As far as I can tell, this has to do with the nature of my writing and what I write about, and does not include comments. This has to do with personal bias and some effort to understand "demographic differences between web users and the general population (“demographic bias”). This survey will provide ground-truth data to use to evaluate methods to deal with the demographic bias problem," the student wrote.

I hope he did not have to respond personally to thousands of dubious bloggers for his study. He answered my questions in a manner that most certainly was not generic so I know he read my letter and responded to it. That was the reason I went ahead and agreed to participate. It seemed sincere.

And then I thought I should let you know, my dear reader. Because your comments are as public as what I write, and I don't know how you might feel about that. I assume the study will end in May when the school year ends.

It is an interesting question, how much to share of ourselves. I am wondering now why I do it. I know I started this blog as a creative outlet and a space for draft columns for the newspaper. I did not expect to find real-world friends here, but I have. Nor did I expect to find numerous online friends, but I have. Most of my opinions are milky and not so controversial, and I try to be fair because I am a fair person. So only occasionally have I had to deal with someone who wanted to blast me for something I wrote. That's fine with me. I don't really have the stomach for a lot of flame wars and back-and-forth efforts to defend a stance on most topics.

I share much more here than I do on Facebook. I know how many "friends" I have on Facebook but I am not clear on how many people read this blog. Somewhere around 400-500 a week from the numbers blogger provides. I have no idea who you are, unless you are one of my frequent commenters. Maybe half of my readers are research robots, hitting my blog because of its longevity. I don't know.

But if you're a real person, thank you for reading.

Go Ask Alice

This is not Alice.



Could this be where Alice lives?



Over the Rainbow - wait, that's Dorothy, not Alice.

 

Here's Alice, the Disney version.



A Lucky Find

The other day I walked into my office and I spied something on the floor. I bent to pick it up and found this:

The four-leaf clover was flattened and dried. Puzzled, I wondered where it came from. I'd done a little cleaning and arranging but did not recall seeing a clover.

I picked up the little prize and took a picture of it. When I lifted it again, one of the leaves came off, making it a four-leaf clover no longer. I was glad I snapped the photo when I did.

The thing may have fallen from a picture frame when I swapped out a couple of photos recently, but I don't recall saving it.

For a long time, back in my 30s, I found four-leaf clovers everywhere I went. It became a running joke because I'd look down and find the lucky charms at my feet. They jumped out at me and I had a small collection of them at one point.

After a while I stopped looking for four-leaf clovers and it has been a long time since I spied one out in the grass. Maybe this is a sign to try my luck again?

Fortune Cookie Sayings

Life to you is a dashing and bold adventure.

Wisdom is only found in truth.

Every friend joys in your success.


(Found these on my desk whilst doing a little cleaning.)

Screenshots of Skyrim

Skyrim is a Bethesda video game that I play. It's an RPG (role playing game) where you are the hero. I like these because they have puzzles and mysteries.

The graphics are also amazing.

Be Right Back!

Took a slightly unscheduled break from blogging for a day - my brain wore out!

Returning tomorrow, though, because it's THURSDAY!

Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life

The Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life Live Seminar
Living the Wisdom of the Tao
By Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
Copyright 2007
6 Discs




I checked this out of the local library. It is not a book although Dr. Wayne Dyer, the author, has a book about the subject. Initially I thought this was the book and then realized it was him talking about the subject, which is his interpretation of the Tao Te Ching.

I found this to be an interesting discussion and it has piqued my interest in learning more about the Tao Te Ching and this way of looking at the universe. I hope to study it more in the very near future.

This is the first encounter I have had with Dr. Dyer, and I think I will check out some of his other works based on what I heard in this seminar.

A Feather in the Cap

On Sunday I took a walk and I found this turkey feather.

For some reason, I decided to stick it in this tree stump.

It's a feather in the cap. Er. Tree.

I hope it will stay there all winter. I hope the little stump gnome likes its decoration.

House for Rent

Old farmhouse for rent, $700/mo. 2-3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Lots of space.

New paint!

No smoking, no pets.

Credit check and references required.

Rural living at its best. Email me for information.

One Ugly Mug

Since I am nearing the mid-century mark of my life, there are some things I need to take care of. Physicals, colonoscopies, eye exams, mammograms, etc., are all in the works or have been completed.

The other thing I had to do was renew my drivers license.

My license already looked pretty bad, what with me staring into the camera and appearing all bug-eyed and surprised. But the new VA drivers licenses are just awful. Mine came in the mail yesterday.

They shimmer and are kind of see-through. I think they are horrid looking. And it is good through 2021! So I'll be carrying this thing around a while.

I would show you mine but of course I don't want to advertise the number and information to the world, so I won't. I wish you could see the ugly mug on the card, though. Yikes.

Turning 50 is no fun!

Welcome 2013

Being old fuddy duddies, hubby and I slept in the new year. We went to bed at 10:15 and woke up about 6:30 this morning. We both slept in a little (he is usually up at 5 a.m.; I get up at 6 a.m.).

I had not planned to spend my day taking day Christmas decorations, but hubby was home and not doing much, so I put him to work. We rearranged the space in the spare room where I store things (which is also his office now), and we began the tedious process of putting glass in boxes and making sure precious cargoes are well-packed before placing things into storage for another 11 months.

Ah, it is so nice to have the space back. The tree is lovely but it takes up half of the living room.

At lunch, we had black-eyed peas. A friend insisted I eat these sometime today, so I bought a can of Luck's and heated them on the stove. I doused mine with ketchup and hubby doused his with pickle relish. He had two bowls so they must taste better with pickles than ketchup. I think black-eyed peas taste like dirt.

After that I have been piddling at the computer. What a time-waster this little box is. Between Facebook, reading blogs, reading email, playing solitaire, reading news articles, watching youtube videos, and listening to music, one need never leave a chair. If the thing would pop candy bars out for sustenance I suppose that would be all anybody would need. We could sit here and chat on Facebook for eternity, chowing down on Milky Ways.

I hope that you have a bountiful and beautiful 2013, dear reader. Thanks for sticking with me for the new year and what comes after. Hopefully I will post interesting things in the days to come.

Many blessings to you all.