"Destressing Overmuch is Pointless, Fun With Links, It's Nice Here in My Head"
January 20, 1999
January 20, 1999
So I'm putting that to rest! Also there's not much point to berating oneself for one's own shortcomings. Granted, we should work to improve oneself, but distressing overmuch is pointless. I always wish I could be more organized. I survey drawers of clutter, computer folders of clutter, with dispair sometimes. A good deal of the slop we found yesterday was my doings. I had many versions of pictures, smaller, larger, etc., than the one that was actually used on the web crammed into our folder for the Starnet's holdings. I had a devil of a time sorting it all out. It's all rather irritating, and I do vow to do better, but stressing over it all only adds more irritation.
The same goes for weight loss goals. If all I can do is only stem the tide of increasing fat cells, then I must be satisfied with it. That is surely more than I would achieve if I simply let things go on as they have in the past. So it's an improvement. No, you wouldn't find any of that nausating "Why can't I be 115 pounds?" self condemnation here.
As an example of clutter, here's a photo of my computer area:
Messy, huh?.
You can see the plate that held the toast I ate earlier, floppies in an envelope, and a piece of kleenex from crying at a journal entry written by a doctor. It was quite moving. If you ever wondered what goes through the mind of a doctor when they deal with difficult decisions, Dr Liles showed you eloquently. (Note of June 2001: Sadly, the link no longer works) The computer brower is set to one of my regular visits). . . This is the general appearance, for a few more days. Laura wants to rearrange the computers.
To keep my mind off of those sinuses, I've been a surfing fool today! Here's some fun facts from The Diary Registry There are 581 registered diaries. California has the most with 107, a few states only have one or two, such as Arkansas, Wyoming, and Vermont, while Arizona has twelve. Well, I could register Weighty Matters and up the balance to thirteen. But that's such an unlucky number. I'll let someone else be number thirteen.
There are times I hate being right. It didn't turn back on. I played with the on button. It still didn't turn back on. Neither Julia nor I can access our e-mail until we get a new monitor. Sigh!
At least I got done with the major computer work before it died. We have a nifty new Index Page for our main web site. Laura wanted it to have a face lift. So she organised it into groups for tables, and invited me to have at it. I came up with a background image that was a swatch from the lovely lady on the 'cover'. I expanded it, and used modify color maps, and other tweaking to come up with a pinkish, greenish blueish image that would tie the two images together better. Then I mirrored it so I could put all the mirrored pieces together, matching end to end on a new pic. I liked the center part, so I cut it out. This way I knew it would all knit together right without annoying break lines when used as a background pic. Go see!
We have the Eudora on Laura's old computer set to Julia's and my email address now. So if this monitor goes irretrievably bad, we aren't cut off from the rest of the world.
It's that snappy time of year. Especially if I'm wearing my slippers, everything I touch can get zapped. I'm almost afraid to pat Laura when she's at her computer. "Touch metal first!" she yells. Max the dog is certain Laura is magical. Laura reached out to pet him early this morning. In the dark room, a visable arc of static electricity went from her finger to his nose. He fled in bewilderment. He doesn't know why the Goddesses weren't 'happy' with him today.
What fun! Iko's entry today features a picture of her computer with MY PAGE on it! You can see my crisscrossed fork and spoon at the top. I'd sent her the URL for the image of my computer with her page featured, as I figured she'd get a kick out of it. I howled with delight when I saw my URL linked at her page, and this image.
Ive been busy getting more web work in order. One link I had in part sixteen disappeared. Fortunately I was able to obtain the quote I was referring the readers to, for Bill Chance, the journalist who maintains the Worth a Byte daily journal entry picks section for Metajournals.com gratefully supplied it so I could fix the October 24 1998 entry. Laura prefers we not link to any outside sources in any page located at azstarnet.com (The more 'serious' pages). She doesn't want the readers not to wander away from our pages through a link. That may seem a bit severe, but as the pages age, and links go bad, it's not such a bad idea, especially if the link was one that the cohesiveness of your writing depended on.
Anyway the zoo experience was fun yesterday. The Phoenix Zoo is a lot larger than Tucson's Reid Park Zoo, which we've gone to more often. It's very fortunate Laura brought her binoculars, as for animal comfort, all their areas are quite large, and distant from the human observers. All the critters were tiny specks in the pictures! As we watched the spider monkeys at the island across from us, it was a good time to relax. It was there I saw those super tame unafraid of human pidgeons. One out of thirty pics isn't bad for digital. I've done as well with 35mm, and spent five bucks on a big wad of useless paper.
Now I must do something useful. Heck, I haven't even EATEN yet!
Al Schroeder linked to Iko's entry that links back to yours truly! She was referring to something he'd talked about in an earlier entry. Al confesses "I've never met anyone in the flesh that I thought was smarter than I was. Never." He allows that there's an author or two he thought was smarter. (Iko met said author) It may be true, but it's possible he hasn't gotten around very much.
I've met all kinds of people 'smarter' than me. That is, of course because both Laura and Julia belong to those super duper high IQ groups. They've had gatherings in Tucson in which I've met some of the members of these groups. It's not totally positive I would even pass a qualifying test with a score high enough for Mensa. (Densa, anyone?) But this stresses me not in the least. I have my own kind of smarts. Julia has contained in her own head more remembered book learning than anyone I've ever met. She's studied the basics of several languages and can probably tell you the origins of any word you ask her. I couldn't possibly retain so much factual data in my 'lil processor. That's one kind of smarts. Laura has a "create something from nothing" sort of creativity that is rare.
I excell at the "create something from something" kind of creativity. Look at my artwork. I had to have a model of one kind or another to create any of it. Laura can pull stuff out of her head and make something out of it. With her spontaneous humor, she's a natural for those cartoons she does. (Her God cartoon series are one example. {Okay, a theist won't laugh much at THOSE. But she does other themes.} There's individual cartoons I linked to from ATTWT such a"A Hero Lies Within" and "Just Numbers" and "Frightening if True" )
There are different types of intelligences. One thing the really really smart do is discuss intelligence. I must say the stuff in that there preceding url leaves me highly confused. Why, of course, that's because I ain't that smart. But I can say I really like being in my own head. Some of the people who belong to the ultra ultra high intelligence societies feel drawn to them because without them, they have no one who understands them. I would hate to be that 'smart'. I would hate not being able to make myself plain to the common person on the street. That's when smartness becomes almost a handicap. I'm truly glad I'm not gifted in that sort of way. (Or maybe I am, and you can't understand a friggen' thing I say? Hmmmm.) At any rate, it's nice here in my head. That's all that really matters, in the long run.
To be free minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat and sleep and of exercise is one of the best precepts of long lasting. --Francis Bacon
Let's all have fun, now!
That's an order!
We all have our 'handicaps', and this is one of mine. Laura goes one time to a place and the route is then forever sealed in her mind. I'd been on the detour several times while Laura was driving, but nothing sticks.
" I've gotten some comments about the entry the other day...look here at "It's Nice Here in my Head" of WEIGHTY MATTERS. And she's possibly right...maybe I don't get around much. I prefer to think of it as intellectual self-confidence though....or perhaps, more realistically, the pride that goeth before a fall."He has such a great sense of humor. I love his very creative drawings that always grace his entries. Those IQ tests can't measure that kind of creativity. For certain, it is high on any scale, though.
Al's getting educated. In the above mentioned entry, he tells how he's learned via radio about all sorts of piercings of the human body. I agree with him, nothing radical for me, either. The ear deco below is it. As I age and the ears get bigger, maybe one more hole. But that's it!
...In terms of "body piercing"!
* * * * *
Where do you really wish you were right now? That's a question a pop quiz asked me tonight. Right here, right now is the answer. I'm surfing before "Star Trek Voyager" comes on. Laura's playing a computer game (Fallout II) which features Louis Armstrong singing "Give me a kiss to build a dream on" at periodic intervals. I love that old time sax. Julia's listening to her classical music. All is mellow. Show starts in three minutes.
11:00am - mug of 7-up
2:15pm - (Boston Market fare!) - 1/4 chicken dark, stuffing, green beans, sliced potatoes, corn bread, two mugs of iced tea - Laura was so sweet to bring me back a plateful when she went out shopping, as she knew I had too much to do to go with her.
6:30pm - one and a half oranges, small bowl popcorn, mug of water
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