We all go through life in somewhat of a personally induced cloud of insolation that keeps us functional in the world but cocooned enough to drift through life without sometimes being fully aware of what is going on around us.
Then, the jarring moment where you hear something coming out of someone else's mouth occurs, and you think to yourself "I can't possibly have heard what I think I heard!"
These are the times where you are a victim to misheard words.
One of my favorite things to do when I am bored and have a whole lot of necessary things I have to do but am avoiding like the plague is to look up the phrase "misheard lyrics".
There is nothing so excruiciating or funny as discovering that the words to the song you have been belting out like a rock star aren't ANYTHING like what you have been singing. Hmmmm.
That would explain the odd smiles that people give me somtimes when I sing. It isn't the notes that I am using that can only be measured on a dog scale, but rather the words that I am saying that are in an orbital plane all their own.
Because we all tend to walk around in a fog at times, these moments are funny, but not generally too disastrous.
The funny bits come with the famous of the world when they mix up their words while the microphone is on. Most of us are content to have our lot in life because we know every moment is NOT being recorded as a sound and video byte for YouTube. We bask in the warm glow that while sometimes embarrassing, our personal moment of shame isn't likely to be a permanent entry in the hall of fame on some website forever.
I do know a couple of people personally who can't say this. Sadly, one of them thinks the video of him on the web is a cool thing. He is simply too deluded by his 15 minutes of fame to realize that no one is laughing with him, they are laughing AT him.
The next time someone says something or does something that doesn't come out right, remember while you snicker that your time is coming soon. And be sure and check for cameras before you open your mouth.
You just might be the next person to make it big with an unintentional gaffe on YouTube.
October 5, 2007
October 1, 2007
Snap, Crackle, Pop
Life's little emergencies.
It was an ordinary Saturday filled with the wonder and joy of housework and a bit of yardwork.
On my way back into the house, I noticed the wheelchair ramp was slightly off kilter. Just enough to make a gap and a bump that was becoming increasingly more difficult to get the front forks over while coming into the house.
Was it earth shattering? No, but it was a minor annoyance.
Then I tried to move it.
I want to get one thing perfectly clear. I am by no means a frail retiring woman who requires the man of the house to do everything. Besides which, he was at work.
I should have waited.
It all seemed simple until the ramp and I didn't see eye to eye. And I broke my wrist.
Not too excruciating at first, just a snap, a crackle and a pop and it was all over but the crying. Those didn't happen until Sunday when the swelling and discoloration set in.
I attended choir practice high as a kite.
I wonder if anyone noticed.
The X-rays today were singularly undramatic. But nonetheless, I get to sport a nifty 'flesh colored' wrist brace for several weeks. They don't cast stuff like this much anymore. Plus, I get to carefully wash it so that I don't become a walking petri dish in the works.
The new prescription medicine my husband brought in for my pain and suffering is a 3 day wonder.
And no, I will NOT share it with you.
If you want any, you will have to go break your own wrist.
It was an ordinary Saturday filled with the wonder and joy of housework and a bit of yardwork.
On my way back into the house, I noticed the wheelchair ramp was slightly off kilter. Just enough to make a gap and a bump that was becoming increasingly more difficult to get the front forks over while coming into the house.
Was it earth shattering? No, but it was a minor annoyance.
Then I tried to move it.
I want to get one thing perfectly clear. I am by no means a frail retiring woman who requires the man of the house to do everything. Besides which, he was at work.
I should have waited.
It all seemed simple until the ramp and I didn't see eye to eye. And I broke my wrist.
Not too excruciating at first, just a snap, a crackle and a pop and it was all over but the crying. Those didn't happen until Sunday when the swelling and discoloration set in.
I attended choir practice high as a kite.
I wonder if anyone noticed.
The X-rays today were singularly undramatic. But nonetheless, I get to sport a nifty 'flesh colored' wrist brace for several weeks. They don't cast stuff like this much anymore. Plus, I get to carefully wash it so that I don't become a walking petri dish in the works.
The new prescription medicine my husband brought in for my pain and suffering is a 3 day wonder.
And no, I will NOT share it with you.
If you want any, you will have to go break your own wrist.
September 29, 2007
Rocket Boys and Dreams
We were watching 'Rocket Boys' early this morning.
I see the hunger in the eyes of the young men to be more than their community can offer them and I wonder how the parents cannot see the dreams and visions of more that are in the minds of their boys.
When my son was playing baseball, he asked me a pretty tough question. He said, "Mom, do you think I am good enough to play in the majors?"
I am not naive enough to believe that a child asks those questions without a dream of something greater in mind.
With great care, I began to answer him. Having been blessed with parents who were conscious of the possibilities of the world that COULD be available with work, I told him, 'Bud, you can be ANYTHING you are willing to work to achieve. Anything. And if this is where your future leads you, then I'll support you all the way.'
He smiled contentedly and said, "I don't know if I'm good enough, but I thought I'd ask you."
I was thankful that a higher power than me had given me the answer.
Everyone wants their children to succeed and everyone wants their children to have opportunities that they didn't have. Sometimes, the realities of life, like for the Rocket Boys in Coalwood, encroach upon the possibilities of what could be supplanting it with the painful life choice of what MUST be.
When the circumstances of life dictate reality over dreams, reality usually wins out in convincing fashion. But in the process, a little bit of that individual dies. Even if, in the very recesses of their soul, a fragment of the shattered dream remains as a twinkling ember of desire that could spark the fires of imagination, the need to pay the bills and make the dinner and put the kids to bed keeps the spark only a tiny light drowned out by the halogen glare of daily life.
But sometimes, the hunger for more gnaws at the insides of a person until it must be set free to seek other ways to feed the desire. It is then that the courage to be more than circumstances would seem to allow can blossom into a raging fire of desire, hope and effort. This combination combines into a fuel more potent than any other and it can launch our dreams skyward, where truly, there is no limit except those imposed by self.
Recently, my baseball loving son decided that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of the astronauts and scientist who have launched their dreams and their hearts into space. He wants to become an aeronautical design engineer.
When he asked me the same question, but this time substituted the new dream that has supplanted the old, I knew what I had to say.
'Bud, you can be ANYTHING you put your mind to and that you are willing to work to achieve. And I'll support you all the way to the stars.'
In a voice that has now deepened and a resolve that has just recently come into focus in his eyes, he said, "I know, Mom, but I just had to ask."
Wherever he winds up working when he completes the education that he will need to become his dream, he will be the lucky one.
Instead of working for money, he will be working to fuel his dreams and ambitions. And everyone knows rocket fuel is a powerful motivator. Just look at where it took the Rocket Boys.
I see the hunger in the eyes of the young men to be more than their community can offer them and I wonder how the parents cannot see the dreams and visions of more that are in the minds of their boys.
When my son was playing baseball, he asked me a pretty tough question. He said, "Mom, do you think I am good enough to play in the majors?"
I am not naive enough to believe that a child asks those questions without a dream of something greater in mind.
With great care, I began to answer him. Having been blessed with parents who were conscious of the possibilities of the world that COULD be available with work, I told him, 'Bud, you can be ANYTHING you are willing to work to achieve. Anything. And if this is where your future leads you, then I'll support you all the way.'
He smiled contentedly and said, "I don't know if I'm good enough, but I thought I'd ask you."
I was thankful that a higher power than me had given me the answer.
Everyone wants their children to succeed and everyone wants their children to have opportunities that they didn't have. Sometimes, the realities of life, like for the Rocket Boys in Coalwood, encroach upon the possibilities of what could be supplanting it with the painful life choice of what MUST be.
When the circumstances of life dictate reality over dreams, reality usually wins out in convincing fashion. But in the process, a little bit of that individual dies. Even if, in the very recesses of their soul, a fragment of the shattered dream remains as a twinkling ember of desire that could spark the fires of imagination, the need to pay the bills and make the dinner and put the kids to bed keeps the spark only a tiny light drowned out by the halogen glare of daily life.
But sometimes, the hunger for more gnaws at the insides of a person until it must be set free to seek other ways to feed the desire. It is then that the courage to be more than circumstances would seem to allow can blossom into a raging fire of desire, hope and effort. This combination combines into a fuel more potent than any other and it can launch our dreams skyward, where truly, there is no limit except those imposed by self.
Recently, my baseball loving son decided that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of the astronauts and scientist who have launched their dreams and their hearts into space. He wants to become an aeronautical design engineer.
When he asked me the same question, but this time substituted the new dream that has supplanted the old, I knew what I had to say.
'Bud, you can be ANYTHING you put your mind to and that you are willing to work to achieve. And I'll support you all the way to the stars.'
In a voice that has now deepened and a resolve that has just recently come into focus in his eyes, he said, "I know, Mom, but I just had to ask."
Wherever he winds up working when he completes the education that he will need to become his dream, he will be the lucky one.
Instead of working for money, he will be working to fuel his dreams and ambitions. And everyone knows rocket fuel is a powerful motivator. Just look at where it took the Rocket Boys.
September 27, 2007
Kid Nation
I don't think so.
Face it, from the time the 1960's rolled into being, the people who decided that 'the next generation' should be in charge changed our perspective, our beliefs and our society on a national level. Not all of that change has been for the better, either.
Now, in their infinite insanity, the people who have brought reality out of life and into a television set near you bring us "Kid Nation".
"We can't solve our problems as adults because we never learned to work together as children." Or at least that is the premise behind the program that is sure to demonstrate that as a whole, children are just that - CHILDREN. As for the adults behind this moment of ludicrous television, all I have to say is "Put down the peyote and come up for a breath of fresh air!"
We cannot stuff them into adult scenarios and expect measurable successes on this program because they HAVE to offer a safety net. We can't turn these kids loose on each other or tragedy would strike. Can anybody spell 'Lord of the Flies'?
When adults on reality shows get hurt, the medic staff swoops down and patches them up or takes them to a medical facility. Likewise, the children on kid nation get supervised by adults, doctors, nurses, tutors and, as an added little bonus, get a warm water slip and slide tower for their efforts in assembling rudimentary plumbing from pre-cut pipes on one of their little "manufactured challenges".
Although I have studied the pioneering time period extensively, I cannot find one concrete reference to the pioneers having either option offered to them. I imagine the luxury of having a doctor at their beck and call would have saved the pioneers from a plethora of aggravating and distressing circumstance. Not to mention saving quite a few from that pesky death thingy.
Louis L'Amour said it best when he wrote "I've seen tenderfeet sicken and die from things that wouldn't harm a ten year old girl born in the West."
Oddly enough, the Kid Nation plumbing assembly challenge sort of made me mad. There are absolutely no references to having fresh clean water chugging through PVC pipes somewhere out on the open plains of what was yet to become America. The poor old pioneers had to strain the particulate matter, live and not so live, from their water so they could take in what was available in sloughs or rank pools of water when the creeks ran dry. Beggers couldn't be choosers which is why some of the beggers and whole lot of the choosers lie in mostly unmarked graves across the expanse of the westward migration route.
I can only imagine how the pioneers would have welled up in great fat tears to have fresh, clean running water along their trek to the great unknown. Likewise, the ability for Abner and Luke to shuck off their boots at the end of a 15 mile day for a quick romp on the slip-n-slide would have not only made them feel more refreshed, but certainly would have made the evening pass more pleasantly for them and their wives behind the old Conestoga flaps later on that night.
What Kid Nation purports to do is an interesting goal. But what it lacks is the ability to keep bribery from the forefront of human endeavor. A $21,000 gold star would make Huey, Louie and Dewey turn on each other like ducks on a spit.
If they really wanted to help the 'next generation' truly be better than we are, then how about the prize for each level of attainment being a deferred reward, like COLLEGE TUITION for Associates Level, then on to Bachelor's Level and so on.
And I have no problem giving prizes that are useful. But I seriously doubt these kids, any of them, have an annuity towards their own retirement.
Yeah, I'm laughing too.
The fact that is being played out in front of us is a visual of that old saw "HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES" and in this case, the broker of the gold is a group of morally bankrupt old farts in the studios who have smoked so much weed they can't tell a good idea from a withered fistula.
No wonder everyone is hoping someone else will come to the earth and take over. At least it would be different.
Face it, from the time the 1960's rolled into being, the people who decided that 'the next generation' should be in charge changed our perspective, our beliefs and our society on a national level. Not all of that change has been for the better, either.
Now, in their infinite insanity, the people who have brought reality out of life and into a television set near you bring us "Kid Nation".
"We can't solve our problems as adults because we never learned to work together as children." Or at least that is the premise behind the program that is sure to demonstrate that as a whole, children are just that - CHILDREN. As for the adults behind this moment of ludicrous television, all I have to say is "Put down the peyote and come up for a breath of fresh air!"
We cannot stuff them into adult scenarios and expect measurable successes on this program because they HAVE to offer a safety net. We can't turn these kids loose on each other or tragedy would strike. Can anybody spell 'Lord of the Flies'?
When adults on reality shows get hurt, the medic staff swoops down and patches them up or takes them to a medical facility. Likewise, the children on kid nation get supervised by adults, doctors, nurses, tutors and, as an added little bonus, get a warm water slip and slide tower for their efforts in assembling rudimentary plumbing from pre-cut pipes on one of their little "manufactured challenges".
Although I have studied the pioneering time period extensively, I cannot find one concrete reference to the pioneers having either option offered to them. I imagine the luxury of having a doctor at their beck and call would have saved the pioneers from a plethora of aggravating and distressing circumstance. Not to mention saving quite a few from that pesky death thingy.
Louis L'Amour said it best when he wrote "I've seen tenderfeet sicken and die from things that wouldn't harm a ten year old girl born in the West."
Oddly enough, the Kid Nation plumbing assembly challenge sort of made me mad. There are absolutely no references to having fresh clean water chugging through PVC pipes somewhere out on the open plains of what was yet to become America. The poor old pioneers had to strain the particulate matter, live and not so live, from their water so they could take in what was available in sloughs or rank pools of water when the creeks ran dry. Beggers couldn't be choosers which is why some of the beggers and whole lot of the choosers lie in mostly unmarked graves across the expanse of the westward migration route.
I can only imagine how the pioneers would have welled up in great fat tears to have fresh, clean running water along their trek to the great unknown. Likewise, the ability for Abner and Luke to shuck off their boots at the end of a 15 mile day for a quick romp on the slip-n-slide would have not only made them feel more refreshed, but certainly would have made the evening pass more pleasantly for them and their wives behind the old Conestoga flaps later on that night.
What Kid Nation purports to do is an interesting goal. But what it lacks is the ability to keep bribery from the forefront of human endeavor. A $21,000 gold star would make Huey, Louie and Dewey turn on each other like ducks on a spit.
If they really wanted to help the 'next generation' truly be better than we are, then how about the prize for each level of attainment being a deferred reward, like COLLEGE TUITION for Associates Level, then on to Bachelor's Level and so on.
And I have no problem giving prizes that are useful. But I seriously doubt these kids, any of them, have an annuity towards their own retirement.
Yeah, I'm laughing too.
The fact that is being played out in front of us is a visual of that old saw "HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES" and in this case, the broker of the gold is a group of morally bankrupt old farts in the studios who have smoked so much weed they can't tell a good idea from a withered fistula.
No wonder everyone is hoping someone else will come to the earth and take over. At least it would be different.
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