Virginia Breeze

When you have thousands of photos around you can always find a few that maybe can be dressed up and taken out in public. So here is a candidate for this Saturday afternoon. Soon to be Saturday evening (second photo below).

How are things going in your area this weekend? It seems rather low key around here. Perhaps everybody is saving up their energy for the upcoming Fourth of July weekend. That’s a pretty big one around this neck of the woods. Helena may not think so but that’s because she seems to be so attached to Great Britain.

Except when she is flying above it in an airplane. And even then she can’t resist diving out the door just to get back in a hurry. I’m kidding of course.

We went to a concert last night at an area shopping plaza. I was taking photos of the band The English Channel when I inadvertently pointed my camera at a building being constructed nearby. And wouldn’t you know it a large and very round security guard had to stick his face in my comfort zone to tell me about the policy of the stores.

You can’t take photos of the stores or the buildings. So much for celebrating freedom and the upcoming 4th. Perhaps somebody can explain that one to me. Here’s a photo of some of the band  and the crowd.  We enjoyed them a lot. And you can see from these photos that many fans were relaxing and enjoying them too.You can see some more photos of the band here on my Picasa Web Gallery.

I have to say a few words about my daughter and her family. I don’t often mention them because my daughter like my wife doesn’t want anything to do with the internet. People fall into two camps in this regard. My son and his wife are alright with me sharing photos of them and Charlie. And now the new baby too.
For better or worse the internet is the way many of us communicate these days. Where do we go to be honest and open with each other? Everyone has a different idea about that.
I view the internet as a place full of opportunities for growth and honest communication. Sure there are people around who are going to try and mess that up. But they are in church too. They are everywhere. The Wal-Mart parking lot can be a dangerous place. I would rather see my children shopping online.

So Congratulations to Sarah and Jeremy on the birth of their daughter Kathryn. And congratulations to my daughter and her husband on his promotion. I can’t think of anybody in this world who I admire more than this guy. He is a brilliant financial analyst and a great father and husband. He has a ready laugh and an easy going manner. It’s no wonder that at age 36 he has been sought out for a lead role in a major financial management corporation.

His new office is on Pennsylvania Ave in Washington DC and as Senior VP his next move will be to to the Chief Financial Officer’s suite.
He never ceases to amaze me. And he is a great example for my own son who is in the same league as far as I am concerned. I sense a little competition there but maybe that’s just me. Both are leaders of men and may one day be in charge of large organizations.

Sarah and my daughter are wonderful stay at home moms with advanced degrees and bright futures. We have five wonderful grandchildren. And I know my daughter never wants any of us to forget our other grandchild who spent such a short while with us and is now back in heaven.

I love them all and pray for them every day as our country sails into an uncertain future.

Here is a poem I wrote awhile back for my daughter 

When it comes to the internet and blogs that are branded “personal” I think of the authors of the past who opened themselves up in books that we all read growing up. Where would we be without them? Many of us grew up in homes where there wasn’t a lot of communication going on. And in the schools we were limited by the standards of the time from discussing our great concerns. These authors were subjected to reprisals of one sort or another because they were famous and wrote about all sorts of things.

I look up to people like F. Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner who wrote the incredible novel As I Lay Dying and taught right up the road at the University of Virginia. Where would we be without them keeping us company in our darker moments and with our more private thoughts?

They were not afraid to speak their truth to the world. Should we be any different?

Events in the life of William Faulkner

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I think that maybe we jump to conclusion sometimes when we send a post to someone and request they stumble it for StumbleUpon. Maybe we think this person didn’t like our post. Or maybe we think they were too lazy to spend 30 seconds writing a review.

But there are lots of reasons why your interesting post doesn’t get stumbled. And you might want to think about them before you cross someone off your Christmas list.

First of all it is my experience that the “Send to” button doesn’t always work. Or it works so fast that you don’t even know what you just saw. And you can’t get it back once it happens. It’s gone. And there is no response button to use. You can’t ask where “it” came from or send a response unless the original material is still in front of you. In which case you don’t need the response function except to say “Hello” or “I did it and now you owe me one thousand dollars”.

Often I find that the page or post shows up without a message. Did it have a message that got lost? Maybe. Am I going to write a review for something if I don’t know where it came from? Not likely unless it stops me in my tracks and I put down what I was doing.

What are some of the other reasons we don’t get responses. Maybe the person on the other end was having a really bad day. At a certain point on the one to ten scale StumbleUpon becomes unimportant. Maybe this person got some really bad news. Maybe they have a migraine headache or some other medical condition.

Or maybe you screwed up somehow and you have no idea what you did. Then you won’t be receiving a response. Let’s say I wrote a post about squirrels and say that I don’t like squirrels. And this person has a squirrel farm and loves squirrels. Maybe each of the squirrels has a name and is trained to stay out of the street.

Now I’m in trouble. “Your check is in the mail” was never more true than now.

Or maybe this person enjoyed reading your post and was going to give it a nice review but had to go to dinner. And by the time this person returned to the computer the particular brain cell that held this plan has died. It checked out after dessert.

It had a fatal reaction to the clam sauce mixed with wine that this person ate during the main course. And now it is as if your post never existed. Oh well.

Or maybe this person read the post and decided you are an idiot. Oh wait. That would never happen. I think I better use myself for this example. Because I know this HAS happened in my experience. Because I am at times an idiot. There is no question about it. And the problem is that when being an idiot I am not smart enough to realize that I am being one. It would be kind of a contradiction if I DID realize it.

And so I send off things that probably should remain underground in a shopping bag. Paper not plastic.

There are really so many reasons it doesn’t pay to jump to conclusions. Maybe the computer that is used for stumbling purposes decided it didn’t want to play ball. How many things can go wrong in a computer? How many electron pathways are there inside that thing that would make a strand of your hair look like an oil pipeline. And I’m not saying your hair is oily. Please. I have enough problems right now. But all of those electron pathways have to be ready for electrons to move through them. Every one.

And in order for that to happen the squirrels have to stay out of the transformer outside your house. Do you see where this is leading?

And more importantly do you care? Because there is a good possibility that the reason someone did not respond to your request for a stumble is right outside your window. And he (or she) will be waving good-bye to you when you get in your car and drive away.

Unless it’s nap time. In which case be sure and back up the car very carefully. And when you get home don’t forget to call up the Cable Guy and tell him that one of your little friends gnawed through your cable line.

Sending messages has always been an iffy affair. Sometimes they get where they are going. And sometimes they don’t. We are being optimistic when we assume everything works and someone didn’t like what we sent them. Or maybe we are being pessimistic. Who can tell?

Back to 6/Writing About Blogging

http://davidnotes.com/2008/02/04/plan-for-virginia-breeze/

“”Retailers call this super Saturday. It is easily one of the busiest shopping days of the year. The National Retail Federation estimates that more than 35 million Americans - mostly men - have not started their holiday shopping yet. “Sometimes this is how it happens - last minute,” said shopper John Babbitt.”"

http://cbs13.com/national/last.minute.shopping.2.616667.html

Procrastination is one of those words that comes to mind at a time like this. But Mr. Babbitt is right when he says “Sometimes this is how it happens”. Because we are talking about a way of life here for many of us. Christmas is when the media spotlight shines on this particular way of dealing with the world. But it goes on all year long.

I have a bunch of stuff I was going to send back to LL Bean last summer. And it’s still sitting there waiting for me to do the paperwork. I have a woodworking project out back that should have been done in October. And my exercise program now hopefully will get off the ground in January.

Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I did not rest until the “to do” list was finished. So many more things would get done! I know it’s possible but what a challenge! It would mean forcing myself to do something on a regular basis that I did not want to do. It would be like being at work in other words. Only you don’t get paid if you do it and you don’t get fired if you ignore the task.

Everything pretty much goes on as before. Except that I am not happy with the results. I would be a happier person if I did all the stuff I have written down in my book. Maybe this is what Tony Robbins writes about in his books. I have been wanting to read one of them for a long time.

Well that’s not going to happen. But my good friend YouTube has a 20 minute video by Mr. Robbins. And I thought it would be good to listen to it and share it here. I don’t understand why he has to indulge in bad language so be forewarned.

The other side of Christmas in the New Year as we all know! And it will be time to put it in the next gear!

There is always hope that it can happen.
Change. Growth. Happiness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpc-t-Uwv1I