oddstilllife.com Blog

Yes. A year. I know.

Big surprise. Well, guess what. After April or May, it may be another few months before I do this again, if then. Something is coming up in July. I will probably have no access to the internet for a month or more. I might drop my site all together between now and then. I might not. I’m not sure. Until then, I will try to write something here every day. You can all wish me luck. Thank you.

Things I Didn’t Know Yesterday

Number 1: Indiana Jones is a wuss. (And he badly needs a new stylist.)

I went to the drive-in yesterday to see what would have been a wonderful double feature Kung-Fu Panda and Indiana Jones. It would have been wonderful if the second feature hadn’t been Indiana Jones and the Crystal Who-Gives-A-Crap.

If you haven’t seen this movie, do yourself a favor and skip it. It’s not worth the let down. It’s badly paced, badly written and plain old just bad.

You couldn’t have put more crap in a movie if you’d edited the thing in a moving train car full of cattle.

The beginning is slow and occasionally stupid. The middle is long and occasionally mind numbingly boring, and the ending. . . OMG! What The Crap!

I adore the Indiana Jones series of movies and I can only pray that this is not the one that they go out on. It will tarnish the memories of every good film Harrison Ford has ever made. I say find a decent writer and start again. Then tell us this one was some strange practical joke and that we should just forget we ever saw it.

Seriously, though, Movie Industry. If you are going to rob us of 12 dollars (which is what most people in the country will pay to see this snot) at least knock us out first, so that we don’t actually have to watch you destroy the fondest memories of our youth.

Anyone who has seen this movie and loves it, please I must know two things. Firstly, what movie were you watching, because mine sucked

Then, what drug and/or alcohol did you take and/or drink before the movie, and is it legal in the lower 48?

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Now, Where Was I?

I can not believe it has been almost a year since I last posted to this blog. I don’t know why. I’ve been busy, but not that busy. I’m thinking it had a little to do with boredom and a little more to do with self-confidence. Maybe, I thought ‘Who am I to be writing a blog?’

Well, I’ve learned a little bit about myself this past year and one thing I’ve learned is that no matter what my faults and foibles I’m basically just as good as the next person ( and/or blogger ). I’m not college educated, but I’m more or less self educated. (I did graduate from high school with an honors diploma, by the way.) I have opinions that are not completely out in left field. I have several stories to tell that others may very well find to be interesting and/or helpful or at least poignant.

So, why else haven’t I been back in the last year. Being a stay-at-home mother of a three-year-old (turned four-year-old) is not as full of free time as one might believe. I’ve also been struggling with a novel that just will not let me finish it. (It’s just too personal.) I’ve had several computer problems over the last several months. Not to mention the fact that we’ve been more or less tirelessly searching for a house to buy. (A very inexpensive house, please.)

I’m back now though, for a while at least. I have a few new ideas, a few old ones and I basically can’t wait for the election. Hopefully this blog will be updated daily for the foreseeable future. (I say hopefully because who the heck really knows what will happen tomorrow.)

Thanks and stay tuned.

Disappointment!

Things tend to go good for awhile and then they go not so good. We’ve lost our car. Hoping to find one that isn’t quite a piece of junk. We were going to move and get a pet. We were going to get me high speed internet and now that’s up in the air. If we move we’re getting rid of the cable so we won’t be able to afford the high speed internet service. Right now, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I will try and keep this blog up and let everybody know what’s up.

So, that means the youtube stuff is still on hold. (It takes way too long to upload all the stuff I’ve got ready. I might upload one thing. That’s it.) That means no puppy for my kid, for at least a few months yet. (We will get moved sometime this year, maybe.) I’m slightly upset about the whole thing, mostly about the not knowing. But things could be worse. I suppose.

More later.

The Viral Icks Have Struck!

Our house has been struck by a horrible virus-y type of thing. Started with the kid, a week or two ago and just the last week or so I’ve been struck with it. So, no new site stuff, no youtube stuff. Nothing. Had to write the post yesterday, but that was pretty tough, for more than one reason. My fever broke last night though, so I’m fine today. Still no youtube stuff though, because my voice sounds like a bad imitation of Kathleen Turner. I might get to that stuff next week.

So, this post is just a heads up, to let the few of you who have stuck around know what is going on and that I haven’t disappeared or had computer problems again. I’ll try to write at least one more post this evening after 6 p.m. and maybe by then I’ll be able to put up some stuff on the site. 

(Oh, yeah. Sorry about the title. It was the most creative thing I could think up at 7:30 in the morning. Also the most descriptive of the present situation.)

The Man Is Gone. “So it goes.”

He is gone. His words will live on forever. His life will stand as a lesson to us all. His work will be like textbooks.

I have very few words to write about a man that I admired more than I could admire almost any teacher or diplomat or great man. His novels and essays speak for themselves, and say far more than I could ever imagine.

For those of you who haven’t heard: Kurt Vonnegut, one of the greatest thinkers and writers (in my personal opinion) has died. He lived about sixty years longer than anyone could have ever expected him to. He was a father to many children and a teacher to hundreds of thousands more.

He is often compared to Mark Twain and I would guess that he did not object too long or hard to that. I suppose he was the Twain for the twentieth century.

I have not read every word he has ever written (yet). But it is a thing I will strive to do in the future. I know that as a writer (unpublished, just yet) I have always wished I could write as he does (did). It was not simple for him, but it is simple for us (the readers).

Those who do not understand his writings need not try so hard. Read it twice or three times. It won’t hurt you. (Cat’s Cradle is a good start.) It’s easy to read and it only takes a while for the words to sink in. Maybe it’s like how you feel when you lie down on the ground on a sunny day and can see only sky above you. It’s hard to comprehend that you are basically staring into infinity. Or maybe it’s like the thing kids do when they take a mirror and try to walk around by only looking down into the mirror. (When you do this outside its like your body imagines that you’re flying. You get a tingly, sort of light-headed feeling. I always get that tingly feeling when I’m reading Vonnegut. The feeling I’ve always imagined is my Soul letting me know it still exists.)

Knowing about his life makes me realize that there is still so much in humanity to be proud of, so that we can point to it and say “A person, a man, a human being, did that and something else and even something better.” His passing will leave a hole that not even every word ever written could fill, but the fact that he existed and did things and wrote things and lived things gives us the hope that there are others out there who might have learned at his feet (or at least from his books and stories).

I say to you, whomever may read this, Kurt Vonnegut was a man. He lived a long life. He saw much and lived much that would’ve destroyed another man. He was a writer and a thinker. He has died. “So it goes.”

Let’s Just Rename March : Everybody Get Sick At Once Month

First the kid was sick for 2 weeks. First the terrible tummy bug thing that made her be sick to her little tummy and then last week the horrible hacking cough that scares parents crazy.  As for me: I’m not feeling so great either.

(Small aside: my kid is talking in her sleep. It’s 5:45 and she’s sleeping in the room down the hall. Yes, my three year old talks in her sleep. Pretty loudly, too.)

I have returned, though, and with some interesting, if not amazing news. I will be getting High Speed Internet at the beginning of next month. Yeeehah!

(Another aside: Does anyone besides myself hate that the updated doohickey here at WordPress implements a spellchecker. — By the by : the spellcheck does not recognize WordPress nor spellcheck. I despise spellcheck. If I want to misspell a word I shouldn’t have to be bugged about it. It can probably be turned off, but I haven’t figured out how, yet.)

Anyway! Until I get the cable internet in May, I’m unable to be on the internet at all during the day, so I’m using this time to totally rework the whole site (offline). By the Big Spring Holiday I should have at least a handful of pages up, including a brand new home page (or whatever the kids are calling it these days) and at least one downloadable file. (’Downloadable’ bothers the spell checker. Is it not a word? By the by, ‘offline’ also is underlined. Hmmm? Seems the spell check dictionary is antiquated. That word looks like it is spelled wrong but it isn’t. Antiquated is a strange word, it sounds unreal and looks even worse, but the spell check accepts it so I will too.)

Does the last paragraph seem strange to anybody? It does to me. I’m not even tired (went to sleep early and woke up early) but that paragraph looks like I haven’t slept in days. Maybe I’m just rusty.

I should have some new pictures up at flickr, under tracelore, by 9:00 my time. Nothing much. Some old stuff. Some new stuff. I’ll write more later, probably after 6:00 pm. For now, good bye, with all that that entails.

Told Yah!

Ok. This is not new stuff. I wrote this. . . forever ago. (Anywhere from one month to one year ago.) I meant to put it up before now and just never got around to it. Unless I did and it’s actually up on some page somewhere ( or maybe it was one of those pages that got erased by accident, I dont know).

Anyway. . . Here it is:

Music Today (Whenever)

Was just listening to “Everything That Glitters” about a mother who deserted her child (and husband, apparently). Sort of puts things into perspective. I used to cry over that one, but its just too real to cry over.

I mean, you cry over that sort of thing you never stop crying. (Hmmm. A mother who doesn’t give a damn. That I understand.)

Sitting listening to Dickey Lee sing “Rocky”. Old memories, there. Heard that one when I was tiny and it always made me cry. I feel it welling up at that second to last verse. One tiny tear. Gives me the slight shivers, but its so old and its been so long. (Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey” is like that. Still brings a tear. But you feel like you’re too grown up to really cry over it.)

Last real tear jerker on the disc is a version of “Seven Spanish Angels” with Ray Charles and The Highwaymen. That’s a real nice, old sounding song. Like something from a century and a half ago.

It’s later and I’m listening to “The Change” by Garth Brooks. The one with all the sound clips from 9/11. It brings tears, but it’s not sad. It’s uplifting and beautiful, especially in his resonant voice. Always did like Garth Brooks. He’s very unique.

(By the way, the next song was Two Pina Coladas. A fun drinking song. That’s a good way to cheer up.)

Tah Dah! (AKA: Fancy Meeting You Here)

Hello. It’s me. I know. I’m late. As usual. Things have been kind of freaky around here. Plus I’ve been trying to finish the book. (I’m nearly there. –Cross any two fingers on one hand. Double-crossing is bad luck.)

Remember how I used to talk about my diet. Well, I don’t talk about it anymore. I’ve tried a hundred things and none of them have worked, so I’m going to try something I did when I was 14 and lost 25 pounds over the summer. (It’s nothing terribly, horrible. I was never anorexic or anything. I just lived on vegetables and water for a summer. —Come to think of it I’m not much taller, maybe two inches, than I was when I was 14, maybe that diet stunted my growth.— But, no matter. I have a couple of weeks until That Fabulous Spring Holiday when the Big Bunny brings tons of chocolate to my house, so I think I’ll see how much I can lose between now and then.) I’m keeping a video log of my progress, starting today. I’m going to be as honest as I can with it, meaning I’m not going to tell my weight, but I will tell how much I lose. (The videos will be up on Youtube — under teddytayl — by Easter, if not before.)[Well, that never happened, and this edit is taking place in 2009. Yikes!]

Anyway. . . I’ve had many things to think about since I last posted and I’ve written many of them down on Microsoft Notebook pages. I think I’ll probably be posting those sometime between now and 10:30 my time. (When I relinquish my hold on the phone line. My birthday wish is cable internet.)

Well, it’s been real and it’s been fun, but it hasn’t been real fun. (Hahaha. Just kidding. Actually heard that on Lilo and Stitch last week and it still cracks me up. Am I hopeless, or what?  — Wait, don’t answer that question. Rhetorical? That’s right. Yeah. We’ll go with that. It was rhetorical. — Oh, no, now I’ve got that scene from “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” stuck in my head. I hate rhetoric!)

Okay. That was weird. I will return. In another post. Not long from now. Pretty soon. See yah.  

Oh, Well. . .

Can you tell — from how often I’ve posted — just how awful this month has been? Well, it has. The new carpet just got put in YESTERDAY. Almost one month after most of my house was flooded. Slow, much? I think so. But, that’s okay. I’m not complaining. . . much. Matter of fact, I won’t complain at all.

Moving on . . . I finally got a video up on youtube and it’s horrible. I’ve fixed it — a little bit — and am reposting it today, with sound even. (I did a voiceover thing explaining it. It’s terrible, but it’s better than it was. I finally figured out how to convert to mp4. Duh! I feel like such a lunk head. It was pretty simple, once I just sat down and looked at everything.)

No progress on the text game. I’m hopeless. I just can’t get a handle on what I want to express with the medium. I haven’t quit, yet, but I think I’m going to concentrate on the video thing for a little while. I might even start a video log. Probably not actual video of me, but something video-y (probably not anything approaching a real word, but . . . video-like is too longish so video-y will do).

Okay. Wait. I have got to complain about one thing. My new carpet (which someone else picked out) is light, lite, really, really light, beige. Almost white. Hmmm. I have a three year old kid. How long do you think this carpet will survive in its original state? Any guesses? A month? A week? A day? 12 hours? AAARGGH!

Well, it’s Friday. Most people are happy about that. I’m ambivalent. I’ll get some video stuff done today. The rest of the time I’m going to spend being slightly ill and horribly worried about the new carpet. (Won’t let myself get scotchguard stuff until after the first. It’s an extra expense we didn’t need. But it’ll be necessary.)

Sunday is Oscar night. I haven’t seen a new movie in almost a year. I don’t think I’ve even wanted to go to any of the nominated films. Maybe it’ll be fun just to sit here at my computer and watch and laugh, thinking of all the people out there who think Hollywood is so glamorous. (Hahahahah!) Some of the people are, some of the time. The place? No. Walk five blocks west or south of where the awards are held and the glamor completely disappears, as if by magic. Movie magic. Hey, kids, the streets of Hollywood are paved with the same crap any other small town five miles from one of the largest cities on Earth and ten miles from a seaside resort town is . . . . crap! Unless you really, really can act, or are really, really, really rich, STAY HOME. Enjoy the Oscars once a year with the rest of us and be grateful not to be in Hollywood.

Ehem! How I got off on that tangent I’ll never know. Anyway, happy Oscar weekend, if I don’t post again, have a good one.

Do Not Ask!

Yes, I’ve been absent for a while. Yes, I am quite sorry. No, I do not want to talk about it. Why would I want to talk about the house getting flooded because of an impacted drain that took two sets of plumbers and over a week to fix? Why would I want to even mention the horrendous week I spend cramped into my mother’s tiny apartment with her complaining about every single thing I did? Why would I want to tell the whole world that we came back to the house while it was still not fixed, because my mother and her landlord said that my kid was making too much noise? Why? Because I have to get it all out or my head is going to explode!

Whew! Now I feel better. Carpet cleaners or replacers are supposed to come or call or something today, so I won’t have a long time to type (need to be off by 9:00). But let me see what I have to say about the world in general.

Hmmm?

Yeah! The Colts are Number One! (I’ve cheered for the Colts since I was two years old. Back when they were in a different city. Johnny Unitas. Enough said.)

I’m not sure Hillary will be our first female President, but it sure will be interesting (in a kind of soap opera way) to see what the Republicans can dig up on her over the next year. (Unless she actually murdered someone in cold blood I will vote for her if she gets the nomination.)

What is going on over at youtube? I’ve been on the site for the last hour and a half and the videos aren’t updating as fast as usual. ( I always check newest video footage and the last one was uploaded over an hour ago.) I have the feeling they’ve started checking the videos before letting them go up. (Yikes! Apparently not well enough.)

Also, the thing about the copyright infringement is . . . I used to tape stuff all the time (back in the ’80s and ’90s) for my mom and grandmom. Soap opera’s and stuff. Nighttime stuff when my mother had to work late. If I still had those old tapes ( and unfortunately I don’t) I could invite friends over to watch them on the old vhs. Couldn’t I? Or would that be illegal? To me, the internet is just a bunch of loosely connected buddy type acquaintances. If people want to share stuff they have,  that they acquired legally — say by taping it off their own tv set with their own vcr or dvd — I think that should be allowed. I feel the same about music, also. As long as I’m not charging anybody a fee or anything, why can’t I share music or video or whatever, with whoever I want to. Who has the right to tell me who is my friend and who isn’t? Hopefully, nobody.

(Pirating is another matter entirely. That has to do with illegally acquired media, though and not media that a person has bought or has legal access to and would like to share with the community — the world — at large.)

Okay. That’s enough. It’s almost 9:00. I’ve gotta go. ’Bye. 

Sorry About That.

Looks like I won’t make the four updates that I wanted. I got dragged across town to my mother’s place and wound up sick as a dog and sleeping on the couch (This is the third update of the day. So not so bad.)

It was after 7:30 when I got back home. I was still ill and the child was refusing to eat. She’s been refusing to eat much of anything for the last few days. Cookies? Sure. Carrots? Yucky. Candy? Sure. Grilled cheese sandwich? Yucky. Apple? Maybe. Yummy waffles? Amazingly the answer was yes and no. She ate about three bites and wouldn’t eat anything else. She finally ate some chicken at my mom’s house and that’s what she had for dinner before I had to chase her down and make her brush her teeth and get ready for bed. Please tell me I’m not the only person out there that has this type of problem with a three year old. ( Is it possible she skipped the terrible twos and we are now dealing with the terrible threes? )

Anyway, we’re dealing. No tv tomorrow. No playing in the living room. No anything fun for about a week. (We’ll probably give in to the tv thing, just to get twenty minutes of peace.)

Well, looks like this will be the last piece to make it in just under the deadline. (Or a little over? Started it before midnight my time ending it twenty minutes after.)

Goodnight.

Irm Brack!

Ehem! Excuse me for typing with my mouth full, but . . . Waffles!

Anyway. The post I was thinking about today was kind of strange. It was a memory I thought I had and couldn’t have had. It’s weird.

I was thinking about memory this morning. (The novel I’m working on has a great deal to do with memory.) Anyway, I started thinking about something I hadn’t thought about in years.

When I was very young my mother and father and I lived in a very old house, down the mountain from my father’s parents. I know that I was between three and four years old when we lived there. I know that I didn’t go to school while we lived there. The memory I had though was sort of a flashback of me studying for a grammar school spelling bee. I remember walking around in that house, carrying one of those little booklets they used to give you, with the study words in it, getting my mother to help me study.

I’m positive it couldn’t have been that house, but that’s the way my mind remembers it.

To tell you the truth I wish I hadn’t started thinking about it. When you start questioning your memories . . . Eh. Probably something simple like I’m thinking of a different house or something. Probably some place that looked like the house I’m thinking of.

Then again it could be the human brain, being its strange and eerie self.

Never mind. (Maybe.)

Okay! I Can’t Help It! I’m Hopeless, But . . . .

To make up for the last three days of non-posting, non-updating silliness I will be posting three — no, four — four times today, before midnight my time. (If I don’t, may I be struck by . . . a flying ice cream truck . . . AND LIVE! — I’ve been watching too much you-know-who, again.)[His initials are S. S.]

This is my first post of the day. Ta-da! (As my child would say.)

Heck! I had an idea when I got here, but now it’s dissolved. I can’t remember a thing.  My mind has gone blank. Well, more than likely this means that I will post five times today. (Or possibly not at all. No. . . I will post a few times, a little later today.

Ciao, amis. (The extent of my memory of seventh grade French class — which reminds me of the post I was going to make, but breakfast is calling. So, adieu, for now.)      

Okay! Now I’m Mad!

Just came back to the site, from a ten day absence, only to find that it hadn’t updated properly. I still can’t understand how the extra bits get into the page script. I’ve had problems like that about five times since I started this thing. This time it cost me ten days of archive time.

I should’ve double checked and triple checked and quadruple checked, but I’ve been a little busy the last week and a half. Mostly recovering from the holidays and trying to get content for the site finished up. (I’m still not finished with the content stuff but I did manage to create a sort of permanent weekly schedule thingy which I will start later today.)

For any relatives who may be reading this . . . I know. I’m terribly sorry. I’m not really good at this stuff. Like I’ve told you the computer is my hobby. It isn’t a career, at least not yet.

I promise to check and double check from now on. ( I’m too p***ed off not to. I could just spit nails.)

The site should be fine for several days now. I’m going to do a lot of updating. There should be at least one new post a day for the next seven days. There will probably be multiple posts.

I’m trying. Really I am.

Being Cute Will Get You Waffles

The kid is cute. The kid is hungry. The kid gets waffles. Gee! Wish I could do that.

I get up every day last week saying, “I’m starved. I wonder what there is in the house to eat?” Did I get waffles? No. Why? Because I’m not cute. (Or maybe because I’m not three and don’t talk like this ’Hung’y. Hung’y! Waffles!’)

Sounds like I’m jealous, doesn’t it? No way. I wouldn’t be three these days for all the tea in China. Sesame Street sucks. No Electric Company. They expect you to practically do advanced calculus.

I didn’t go to school until I was five. I was a happy child. Sesame Street and The Electric Company were the most incredible things. I learned my ABC’s and 123’s without some goofy pre-school teacher playing politically correct games with me. By the time I was actually in school I was really good at adding and spelling and things like that. I was fine socially, also, right up until cliques and teachers and classicism drained all the social out of me.

What the heck was my point? Ummm. Being cute gets you waffles.