HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
The Turd turns 24...
Katie turns the big 3-0...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Showing posts with label About my Stalker Bodyguard.... Show all posts
Showing posts with label About my Stalker Bodyguard.... Show all posts
Friday, October 12, 2007
Saturday, May 06, 2006
The sound of silence...
I was reading Katie's POST, and something about it got me thinking about the concept of silence and what it means to me.
Silence and I have a special relationship. I have always been fascinated with it and, I guess, rather drawn to its emptiness.
I came to the conclusion at an early age that the term "deafening silence" should be taken off the list of oxymorons - even before I understood what an oxymoron was. I used to make myself experience absolute silence, because I was convinced that you could hear it. For me, silence sounds like white noise, and the longer you are surrounded by it the louder the white noise becomes. I remember waking up as a little girl and thinking that I'd never get back to sleep. The quiet was just too loud.
It gets back to that whole “nothing is, inherently, something” concept that used to drive me crazy in philosophy.
My favorite “quiet moment”, though, is when there is a power outage in the middle of the night. Suddenly you realize how much noise electricity makes. I have a tendency to wake up when the power goes off, because I notice the void of electrical static. For me, it always sounds like the space around me sighs at the exact moment the electricity is cut. Only at that instant can I make out other noises that I couldn’t hear before, and it makes me long for the summers I spent camping in the mountains of northern New Mexico.
The term “peaceful silence”, though, is different, and I associate it with one sound in particular. The most beautiful sound in the world is the noise that snow makes when it is falling. It is always that “cold quiet”, and the world seems so still – almost as if time itself has stopped. Once, when I was in high school (I went to boarding school in a rural area north of Baltimore, Maryland), we had a blizzard that dropped almost three feet on the small campus. It was freezing, but I waded through the snow and made my way down to the athletic fields that were surrounded by a forest of tall, tall trees. I remember standing there and listening to the sound of the snow drifting to the ground – it was all I could hear. Everything was untouched white and utterly still. The snow was all that was moving or making a noise. It was so beautiful. Peaceful silence.
I think that is why I ended up going to college in upstate New York – I chased the sound of falling snow to the one place where snow falls more than any other in the entire country. I’d take long walks in the snow by myself to clear my head and think. It helped to put things into perspective. I used to imagine, during these quiet walks, that my breath was negativity actualized somehow and the cold air was pure stillness and peace. As I breathed in and out, I’d envision all my problems and stress leaving my body with each breath and being replaced with a sense of calm. The whole world would slow down and – just for a moment – I’d feel like the only person on the planet. Nothing mattered except breathing. Everything was going to be okay. My mind, for once, was resting peacefully.
I miss that…
Silence and I have a special relationship. I have always been fascinated with it and, I guess, rather drawn to its emptiness.
I came to the conclusion at an early age that the term "deafening silence" should be taken off the list of oxymorons - even before I understood what an oxymoron was. I used to make myself experience absolute silence, because I was convinced that you could hear it. For me, silence sounds like white noise, and the longer you are surrounded by it the louder the white noise becomes. I remember waking up as a little girl and thinking that I'd never get back to sleep. The quiet was just too loud.
It gets back to that whole “nothing is, inherently, something” concept that used to drive me crazy in philosophy.
My favorite “quiet moment”, though, is when there is a power outage in the middle of the night. Suddenly you realize how much noise electricity makes. I have a tendency to wake up when the power goes off, because I notice the void of electrical static. For me, it always sounds like the space around me sighs at the exact moment the electricity is cut. Only at that instant can I make out other noises that I couldn’t hear before, and it makes me long for the summers I spent camping in the mountains of northern New Mexico.
The term “peaceful silence”, though, is different, and I associate it with one sound in particular. The most beautiful sound in the world is the noise that snow makes when it is falling. It is always that “cold quiet”, and the world seems so still – almost as if time itself has stopped. Once, when I was in high school (I went to boarding school in a rural area north of Baltimore, Maryland), we had a blizzard that dropped almost three feet on the small campus. It was freezing, but I waded through the snow and made my way down to the athletic fields that were surrounded by a forest of tall, tall trees. I remember standing there and listening to the sound of the snow drifting to the ground – it was all I could hear. Everything was untouched white and utterly still. The snow was all that was moving or making a noise. It was so beautiful. Peaceful silence.
I think that is why I ended up going to college in upstate New York – I chased the sound of falling snow to the one place where snow falls more than any other in the entire country. I’d take long walks in the snow by myself to clear my head and think. It helped to put things into perspective. I used to imagine, during these quiet walks, that my breath was negativity actualized somehow and the cold air was pure stillness and peace. As I breathed in and out, I’d envision all my problems and stress leaving my body with each breath and being replaced with a sense of calm. The whole world would slow down and – just for a moment – I’d feel like the only person on the planet. Nothing mattered except breathing. Everything was going to be okay. My mind, for once, was resting peacefully.
I miss that…
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Changes...
Incase you haven't noticed, I've changed my profile picture.
For whatever reason, BLOGGER no longer wanted to recognize my little, blue question mark. So, I was forced to rethink my image.
This is what I came up with:
For whatever reason, BLOGGER no longer wanted to recognize my little, blue question mark. So, I was forced to rethink my image.
This is what I came up with:
If you don't like it, talk to Katie...
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
On the subject of color photographs...
So, incase you didn't notice, Katie has changed her profile picture.
No warning, no nothing. Just *BAM!* new photo. We, her reading public, are expected to adjust accordingly (a concept that is often referred to as "adapt or parish" on ANIMAL PLANET, but I digress).
This is not the first time that Katie has done this, either. Her first profile picture (at least to my knowledge) had her staring at the ground - looking rather pensive. It always made me speculate:
Then, because my mind wonders, I'd imagine that she was really pondering:
Anyway, I was (originally) a little sad about this latest change in "Katie Imagery" because I never got to ask about the "random nose" in the old...errrrr...I mean, second profile picture.
I’ve always assumed that the nose belonged to Jes who – for whatever reason – was dressed up like JEM, the cartoon rock star from the mid 1980's...
...but that would mean the picture was taken at some sort of Halloween or costume-requisite event or party. However, since Katie did not appear to be in costume, this did not make a whole lot of sense (unless, of course, Jes is the kind of person who randomly puts on a masquerade, which - quite frankly - might be a possibility when it comes to Jes...who knows?!).
Then, I saw something that made me think differently:
This further supported the costume party idea, but I was still lacking in the "proof" department. Well, that is until I remembered seeing THIS POST from Halloween, 2005, on Katie's BLOG.
So, Katie HAD posted about it - complete with pictures - way back in October! My mystery was really not a mystery at all! It's a wonder that I didn't make the connection before today (actually I find it to be a little embarrassing, to be honest).
The worst moment for me, though, was in learning that Jes's costume that night was, in fact, "Sydney Bristow" - not JEM.
Anyway, no worries. I am never "mystery-less" for long (I'm special that way). I already have a new one surrounding Katie's most recent picture.
Want to know what it is?
Ready?
Okay, here you go:
Hehe...just kidding.
That's not what I really think about when I see the picture (although, I can't say that I'm not curious, never-the-less).
The new "Katie Photo" actually makes me think of a very specific story - a story that, might I add, was the reason that I decided to post about Katie's new picture in the first place.
Every time I see the new photo of Katie in black and white, it reminds me of last spring when a group of kids came to the museum on a tour. They were young (probably 4th graders) and I was showing them a bunch of pictures that were taken in Texas back in the in the 1930's.
Needless to say, the pictures were all in black and white.
One little boy raised his hand and asked me, "So, when the world got color, why didn't they add color to these old pictures, too?"
The little booger actually thought that, in the past, the ENTIRE world - not just old photographs - was in black and white. People were in black and white, and they only saw each other in black and white. Water, mountains, the sun - all were represented in shades of gray. It wasn't the film or the technology of the time - it was the WORLD that was colorless.
Where do you even begin to correct this...this...this misconception?!
After all, this little boy had seen old movies, so he knew that it was true. According to him, the very concept of "color" was a quasi-recent phenomenon.
So, every time I see Katie's new profile photo, that is the story that will come to my mind. I will think of THAT little boy and wonder aloud, "Katie, you must be a whole lot older than you say you are if you had your picture taken WAY back before the Earth had color".
Alas. Kids today...
No warning, no nothing. Just *BAM!* new photo. We, her reading public, are expected to adjust accordingly (a concept that is often referred to as "adapt or parish" on ANIMAL PLANET, but I digress).
This is not the first time that Katie has done this, either. Her first profile picture (at least to my knowledge) had her staring at the ground - looking rather pensive. It always made me speculate:
Then, because my mind wonders, I'd imagine that she was really pondering:
or (after today):
Anyway, I was (originally) a little sad about this latest change in "Katie Imagery" because I never got to ask about the "random nose" in the old...errrrr...I mean, second profile picture.
I’ve always assumed that the nose belonged to Jes who – for whatever reason – was dressed up like JEM, the cartoon rock star from the mid 1980's...
...but that would mean the picture was taken at some sort of Halloween or costume-requisite event or party. However, since Katie did not appear to be in costume, this did not make a whole lot of sense (unless, of course, Jes is the kind of person who randomly puts on a masquerade, which - quite frankly - might be a possibility when it comes to Jes...who knows?!).
Then, I saw something that made me think differently:
This further supported the costume party idea, but I was still lacking in the "proof" department. Well, that is until I remembered seeing THIS POST from Halloween, 2005, on Katie's BLOG.
So, Katie HAD posted about it - complete with pictures - way back in October! My mystery was really not a mystery at all! It's a wonder that I didn't make the connection before today (actually I find it to be a little embarrassing, to be honest).
The worst moment for me, though, was in learning that Jes's costume that night was, in fact, "Sydney Bristow" - not JEM.
Anyway, no worries. I am never "mystery-less" for long (I'm special that way). I already have a new one surrounding Katie's most recent picture.
Want to know what it is?
Ready?
Okay, here you go:
Hehe...just kidding.
That's not what I really think about when I see the picture (although, I can't say that I'm not curious, never-the-less).
The new "Katie Photo" actually makes me think of a very specific story - a story that, might I add, was the reason that I decided to post about Katie's new picture in the first place.
Every time I see the new photo of Katie in black and white, it reminds me of last spring when a group of kids came to the museum on a tour. They were young (probably 4th graders) and I was showing them a bunch of pictures that were taken in Texas back in the in the 1930's.
Needless to say, the pictures were all in black and white.
One little boy raised his hand and asked me, "So, when the world got color, why didn't they add color to these old pictures, too?"
The little booger actually thought that, in the past, the ENTIRE world - not just old photographs - was in black and white. People were in black and white, and they only saw each other in black and white. Water, mountains, the sun - all were represented in shades of gray. It wasn't the film or the technology of the time - it was the WORLD that was colorless.
Where do you even begin to correct this...this...this misconception?!
After all, this little boy had seen old movies, so he knew that it was true. According to him, the very concept of "color" was a quasi-recent phenomenon.
*Sigh*
So, every time I see Katie's new profile photo, that is the story that will come to my mind. I will think of THAT little boy and wonder aloud, "Katie, you must be a whole lot older than you say you are if you had your picture taken WAY back before the Earth had color".
Alas. Kids today...
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