Continue reading »]]> This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. For many “Twin Peaks” fans the film was just an added frustration, posing more questions than it answered. But for the rest of us it was another chance to delve into the dark and twisted life of a small town homecoming queen and her fellow townspeople.

In celebration of the anniversary, CoproGallery in Santa Monica California is hosting a group art exhibit of pieces inspired by the film.

Some are beautiful pieces of representational art:

...another one of Gordon's Blue Rose Cases

Some are ingenious little sculptures:

"Laura? Don't go there."

Some are a bit more abstract:

The Owls are Not What They Seem

"That gum you like is going to come back in style."

And some are just downright whimsical:

Something to do while waiting for eternity...

For more information about the exhibit, visit the gallery’s web site.

Continue reading »]]> As anyone who has read my blog knows, I was raised by a christian mother and considered myself a christian until about 5 years ago. I’m now an atheist (I can even spell it correctly) and I’ve done my best to rid myself of all the baggage that comes along with being a christian.

"Don't be superstitious, man. It's bad luck!"

One thing I’ve had trouble getting rid of, however, is my superstitious nature and my belief in the supernatural. One of my biggest problems in this area is ghosts. I still believe in them. I know it’s  irrational and illogical to believe in them and that all those ghost stories can most likely be explained in a scientific way, but I still believe.

And It’s not just that I believe in them – they scare me to death. I get so superstitious about them that I think I can attract them to me by just thinking too much about them – and I think way too much about ghosts for someone who’s never had any kind of ‘supernatural’ occurrence happen to them personally.

I used to actually be able to enjoy ghost story fiction. But now, they scare me so badly that no matter how bad the movie is, I’ll be jumpy for days after seeing a haunted house movie.

On the other hand, if the supernatural force is NOT a ghost, they can creep me out but they don’t keep me scared for long periods of time. For example, you know those horrid Paranormal Activity movies? They would probably scare me if they were about ghosts. The second it was revealed it was about a demon, I wasn’t scared in the least. (Side note: My husband and I actually like those movies, but only because they’re so ridiculous that we can laugh at them and make fun of them. It’s rather cathartic, actually.)

When I saw the American The Grudge remake it scared me so badly that for days I could barely move when it was dark if I thought about it too much. And have you ever tried to NOT think of something? Yeah, it doesn’t work.

One of my favorite horror movies is The Blair Witch Project. I can’t watch it anymore. Too many ghosts. I haven’t even tried to watch one of the best horror movies ever – The Haunting – in a very long time. (The original, not that laughable remake.)

"Whose hand was I holding?"

So, how do I get over this? I was able to logically come to the conclusion that there is most likely not a god so why can’t I do the same for ghosts? Is it because people I trust have told me true ghost stories? Yes, I’m sure that all of those occurrences can probably be explained but the stories still scare me when I hear them or think about them.

Anyone out there have any good advice for overcoming an irrational superstition? I want to be able to watch “The Changeling” again someday.

Continue reading »]]> We’ve been rewatching “Babylon 5″ for the past few weeks. It’s the first time we’ve watched it on our big screen, high-def television and even with its sometimes really low resolution (you can always tell when an effect shot is coming up) we can see things we’ve never noticed before. The attention to detail on that show was pretty amazing.

I’m reading a few different things. I’m finally making headway on Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. I struggled with it for a while because a) the protagonist was a whiny-baby who never ceased to complain about his lot in life and b) Verne gives several geology lessons in the book, especially in the beginning. But, that has passed. The main character has finally (somewhat) gotten into the spirit of the adventure and now we’re on to paleontology lessons, which I find more interesting.

I’m also reading I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich.com. Despite his non-sympathy with introverted people it’s a very good book. It’s even an interesting read. Financial books are normally very dry and dull but this one is not.

Last night we picked up a new “Doctor Who” story – The Face of Evil. it’s Leela’s first appearance and so far it’s very good. It really grabs your interest from the start and keeps moving right along.

Continue reading »]]>

Perfect Spring Day

On all these self-help sites I’ve been reading lately the one piece of advice that is common on all of them is this: define what it is you want from life. I’ve always been rather fuzzy on this because what I really want seems so small. But I’ve come to realize that even though what I really want isn’t as exciting as jet-setting around the world it isn’t all that easy to obtain.

So, here it is, what I really want from life:

I don’t really want to be a lazy slug. I really don’t. Don’t judge me on how I behave on the weekends – by the time Friday afternoon comes I am so burned out and down that I don’t feel like doing much of anything for a good four days. Since I only have two to recuperate this can cause a backlog of sluggishness.

What I do want is to have enough money – or earn enough through doing something I enjoy – to be able to spend the majority of my days following the same basic routine. My ideal day would be to sleep until around 9:00 or 9:30, wake up, have some coffee and a light breakfast while I catch up on my internet stuff – Facebook, Twitter. You know, the essentials.

After that, if I feel up to gardening in the morning, I would go outside and do just that. If not, I would do some writing, work on some crafts or projects, do some reading, drink more coffee.

When I feel up to it I would go outside and work in the garden. I could afford to skip a day every once in a while but it’s something I would plan to do on a daily basis even for nothing else but to keep the weeds in check. After the gardening is done I would take my daily shower or if I’m feeling sore, a bath.

I’d ‘quit’ for the day around 5:30 or 6:00 and spend the evening with Chris having dinner and watching our collection of DVDs and blu-rays (and even a few laserdiscs).

I’d squeeze in a workout somewhere in there because in my ‘vision of perfection’ I actually enjoy eating right and exercising.

Of course, I see all of this amid bright, sunny days with cool breezes and temperatures no warmer than 82 with low humidity. Except for the month of December when i would want it it be just cold enough to have a foot of snow on the ground. But no colder – and no ice.

This would all take place in a house big enough to hold our various collections and have a guest bedroom and two large offices so that both Chris and I could do our work as well as our various projects including model building and all of those craft projects I want to try. Outside would be a shady yard with many trees but with enough sunny spaces to allow me my gardens. There would be a nice patio for all our outdoor cooking and entertaining needs.

So, what do I need to do to obtain this dream? The biggest part of this is finding something I enjoy doing that will earn enough to pay the bills (including health insurance) and have some leftover to put into savings to buy or build the dream house. Everything else can be done gradually.

Except for the weather, of course. As much as I try, i still can’t control the weather. I guess that’s still in the hands (or fins) of Pudge.

Continue reading »]]> It’s 2012. I am so glad. To put it bluntly, 2011 sucked rocks.

Sure, it could have been worse – things can always get worse – but 2011 was a low point on the line-chart of my life. Winter lasted several weeks longer than usual, our car developed an oil leak, my vegetable garden was a failure and we still did not lose any substantial weight.

But those were the minor disappointments of last year. I also had to deal with the fact that my department supervisor left, leaving our IT department with three people to manage eight stores. And then, we got three new stores so now there’s three people supporting eleven stores. Despite the fact that the amount of work we now have will remain higher even after things settle down, there was no raise and no substantial bonus to compensate for it.

But worst of all was the loss of China. Even if my gardens had been award-worthy, and even if I had gotten a large raise and year-end bonus the death of our beloved pooch would have made it a terrible year.

We’re still feeling her absence – piercingly so – but we have hopes that this next year will start to look up. We’ll be taking the car into the shop to fix the oil leak and heater in the next week or so and we hope to keep things moving positively from here on out. Unfortunately, no one can control the universe and there’s no telling how it’ll all end up. I’m very nervous about the upcoming elections – the level of intelligence of the American public has been disappointing me since 2000. Add to that the fact that people are already freaking out about the 2012 ‘end of the world’ nonsense and you have the makings of a really bad 12 months.

But as for me, personally, I will do my best to keep things moving forward and in a positive direction. Happy New Year to you all and here’s hoping that we all try to do the same.