Tableau Tuesday and Life gets in the way

This week is no exception. I have a Tableau Tuesday, and may even get to it tonight - after the kids go to bed, after putting in more non-paid overtime to do my actual work because this was my calendar:

But more importantly, here are my pics from the week:
Long lost and recently found cousins:

 

A cool shadow I caught on a walk last week:

 Have a good week!
J9

Thoughtful Thursday - Let's help out our family members

Take a Moment - Right now, and send a prayer, a good vibe, or healing, helpful and loving energy. My heartfelt hopes for good health to you and everyone.

I have this bumper sticker on my car:

You can read about it here.

So my thoughts today are on helping the members of our human family. injaynesworld has a guest blogger today, living in Pakistan and talking about the flood. I have added a couple of buttons on my side bar as well. Go and help any way you can.

Love and Good health to you!

First Day of School and random thoughts.

OK, today is the first day of school - please to enjoy:


Given that the summer started like this, it's been an entire summer of me mostly looking forward to the return of fall. Of course, this was also one of he coldest summers I can remember, and yesterday it decided to get hot - 101 to be exact. I knew this was going to be the year that Halloween is over 100, and of course The Boys will want to be something heavily clothed and furry - a Wookie maybe? In the years where it is 50 degrees on Halloween, they want to be Michael Phelps...

Two days ago, in an apparent olive branch gesture, and a complete 180 from the 2nd day of summer break, The Boys got themselves up, and made themselves breakfast, cleared their dishes, brushed their teeth and got dressed. I was so stunned at the thoughtfulness of this simple act, that I thought I'd woken up in a parallel universe.

On to the random thoughts in my brain. A blog I follow had the most famous image of the effects of Minamata disease, and not knowing what that even was I looked it up here. One of the paragraphs that struck me was:
"When the first cases were reported and subsequently suppressed, the rights of the victims were not recognised, and they were given no compensation. Instead, the afflicted were ostracised from their community due to ignorance about the disease, as people were afraid that it was contagious."

If you keep this in mind for the next generations of the Gulf Coast of he U.S. you would do well. For although we do now know the effect of petrochemicals on humans and other living things, the company responsible is denying that there will be lasting impact, and has minimized the damage all along.
 
I was also reading Esquire this morning and contemplating the 11 people who lost their lives, and the article chronicling their lives so that we do not forget the first 11 to die from this disaster.
 
All this to say that you should celebrate your family while you can and not believe people who will only make more money by lying to your face.
 
Happy Tuesday all!

Music Monday - I feel like dancing NSFW

These both were making me smile over the weekend. Oh and neither is particularly safe for work.

First up the new Scissor Sisters:


And last but not least, new from CeeLoGreen:


Happy Monday all!!!

My Town Shoot Out - I know what I am

The update is that I photographed this a while back, and you can see that post here.

This is the ceiling inside the Sunol Water Temple designed by Willis Polk, and a place I'd been to on and off during my childhood. I need to take another trip out here and soon!

Cool concept from Lena of Spirits of Lena.


Here's mine:


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From J9 and stuff

Check out the other participants here and here.

Thoughtful Thursday - 2 days late

Take a Moment - Right now, and send a prayer, a good vibe, or healing, helpful and loving energy. My heartfelt hopes for good health to you and everyone.

This is my list for today, so if you are reading, send a positive thought or prayer for these people - they could really use it. Updates are at the end, with gratitude for your help!

Audrey (CN) - She is staring another round of chemo, and has lost some hair, but not her sense of humor.
Jacob - a nearly 2 year old who's family is dealing as best they can with his recent diagnosis of Leigh Syndrome.
Hanan - Her cancer is not treatable, so it is being managed. It's in her spine and she is enjoying her time with her family now, while she can

May good health always be your's,

J9

My Town Shoot Out - What Am I?

Cool concept from Lena of Spirits of Lena.
Here's mine:

From J9 and stuff

Long time readers may be able to identify...
Answer coming on Sunday.
Check out the other participants here and here.

Happy Weekend all!

Well Hello Dolly

Ran across this at around 11:30 last night and stayed up to watch it all. Mostly because I LOVE LOVE LOVE this song, the dancers, the singing, the feeling - ALL of it!!!!!!


Secondarily, I ADORE this number - it makes me laugh and giggle like crazy! I know. I'm usually a cynical bitch, but I swear that this morning I was clapping like a 2 year-old on Christmas morning!


AWonderful, Wonderful Wednesday to you all. I will be registering The Boys for school and paying all the lovely fees :-). Also, I'm working on a frugality update, hopefully this week.

Tableau Tuesday - Nevada City

It's been a while since I've posted photos, so I thought I'd process the Nevada City ones from last weekend. I was playing with color, contrast, saturation - just having some fun:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Happy Tuesday all!

Another new follower! And my choice for Music Monday

As a welcome to my newest follower, I am including a new song from KT Tunstall, of whom The dude is a fan:

Happy Monday all!

I want to be like her

Quick witted, honest, and thinking on her feet, even with a mic and camera in her face - this woman is my newest hero:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Hey I have a new follower!

I don't often mention this because there are really so few of you, and I generally gain and lose a couple over the course of a year, but I do notice, and I do go to your blogs (If I am not already following you). I generally believe you all follow me because I either know you IRL, or am following your blog. When a new follower pops up (and I notice), I visit the person's blog(s). So my new follower posted this image on a blog, and I loved it because this is a pet peeve of mine:

This is such a pet peeve that every time one of The Boys or their friends or classmates uses this term, I ask for clarification.

Example:
The Oldest: Mom, there was like this great thing at school today!
J9: So, it wasn't actually a great thing, it was only something that was similar to a great thing? Or was it not really great and just a good thing?

This drives each one of them crazy, and causes them to not say "like" inappropriately.

Take This Job and SHOVE IT

So, I'd debated on whether to weigh in on the Steven Slater story that has been making the news cycle, and then I decided that I can't let this slip by. This is mostly because I am constantly assaulted by the story every where I turn. On second thought, maybe I should re-examine where I'm turning. That's a post for another day.
If you are under a rock and this is your only outlet to the world, get a life, and search the story yourself. Too lazy to do that? You can see the essentials on this:



This version made me laugh. Yes, Out Loud.

So he is being heralded as a hero by every service worker everywhere, while the bougie elite can't understand what his problem is. I'm sure the right wing nuts will spin it into a bitchy queen story, and some b.s. about how this is what we face if we allow gays to marry. nice. try.

For me, this just verifies my theory that a sense of entitlement is dividing this country. I see it all the time. The person who thinks that whatever is going on in his/her life is far more important than you, your safety, your happiness, even your life. Compassion is thrown out the emergency exit, sans slide. I teach The Boys empathy and compassion, and people chastise me, telling me I'm turning them into doormats / future victims for a competitive world. I think these people have lost their moral compass (or it's going in circles).

If there is anything this world needs, it's compassion for our fellow inhabitants, not derision. I often find myself repeating that the people who do inconsiderate things must not have the presence of mind to do otherwise. Maybe they are going through a tough time of life, and I don't take it personally. But it really makes me wonder if there is a larger force at work when I encounter SO much of this.

Examples:
I am THE only person to wait for people exiting an elevator, while people who are BEHIND me are pushing past me, and running into the people exiting.
I am at a store and the person in front of me abandons her cart, while it is still between me and the register. I move it aside, and start unloading my cart. After she has been rung up, she pulls it back to where it was BLOCKING my route to the register, and then walks out.
I am walking in a cross walk, WITH the light, and a person drives in front of me by about a foot, across the cross walk to turn into a parking lot.
I am in line at the theater and a person walks up and stands right in front of me. After I point out where the end of the line is, the person just looks at me like I've grown another head, and STAYS in line. Did I mention talking on the phone the whole time?
I am assigning work to a TEMP at the office, and she tells me that she will not put together these binders because that's BELOW her.
I am working in a nature / science store and a small child knocks over a delicate glass piece shattering it. She goes to pick it up, and as I am telling her not to do so (because I don't want her to cut herself on the glass), her mother says, "Don't you touch that glass. That's what she's here for." in reference to me, and said with such disgust it was frightening.

I cannot possibly blame Steven for doing what he did - completely understandable. It could have perhaps been handled a bit better, but certainly not with more style.

For the 70's version of this story:

Music Monday

Had a really good weekend in Nevada City and had a dream with this song in it. Woke up with this in my head and then saw the book in a bookstore on Broad St. Figured this should be my song for Monday:


Good week all!

So Shines A Good Deed In A Weary World

Today a tiny bit of my faith in humanity was restored when Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that California's Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. Of course there are already appeals, which was expected regardless of the decision. This will end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, and it is a hopeful waiting game for which I now hunker down. I do wonder as well if the whole "Repeal the 14th Ammendment" folks are also hoping that they deny minority rights while they kick babies out of this country.

"May You Live In Interesting Times" could not be more descriptive.

After the election, I posted this and I hope we can continue to support our friends, family members, and members of our community - the human community.

(Photo by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau)

Music Monday I want summer

Today's music selection makes me think of summer:
I know I've posted this previously, but it is THAT good.


This one is just fun and a great road trip song:


This weekend was GREAT. Swim Championships was great - our team moved up 2 spots with fewer swimmers and a shorter season, and one of my Nephews took 2 League Records - He totally rocks! All the kids had fun, and almost every single swimmer had personal best times on the same day. Now that swimming is over, time to shift focus to soccer, theater, school, and moving rooms for The Boys.

Have a great week all!