Tweaking My Time Manager

Where have I been?  Well, I've actually been here, so-to-speak, on this computer, on these keys pretty solidly for the past week.  I have taken breaks for sleeping, exercising, eating, running errands and occasionally staring out the window!  But never far from here - just far from this blog.  My mind's been running at high speed on many levels.  It's sorting things out so they are most effective - which has been challenging.  Why?  Because none of those "things" are solid, like socks. :)  Each of those things is a thought or concept, and each requires organization rather like a jewelry heist.   Am I?  No.  Sadly, my life is far more pedestrian at the present time.   On the other hand, certainly would be fun to figure out the logistics of a good heist!  Ewan MacGregor would have to be my co-star in the movie.  Hmmmm.

What am I doing?  I am in the throes of electronically branding myself so that I may encourage someone to hire me on a full time basis.  Or even, a part time basis.  This branding of my electronic presence is challenging me to reassess my past and my present to discover my professional diamonds. (Yes, obviously, I have jewels on the brain.  Sigh.)  It's kind of fun.  I've been reminded of things I'd forgotten all about.  And there've been some fun memories to which I've been re-introduced.  Then, I've added them online to various databases. 

'Course the question looms as to whether all this database information allows me any flexibility to either change my goals or brand.  Chameleons (sp?) or people aspiring to change as they grow should probably never fill in a Lindedin Profile or get too heavily into Facebook. Why?  Because the Internet search engines never seem to gracefully dis-remember what you said at one time.  So I am being a bit careful as to what goes on there.  For I am now writing in the world's history book.  The Internet has become an international journal of life, as we know it, on a daily basis.  And I'm finding it very time consuming.

That's why I need to tweak my time manager persona into organizing and controlling these ephemeral online timestreams.  Otherwise, my laundry will not get done, the floor won't be washed, and most importantly, I'll forget to go out and meet people in person for interviews or even lunch! Good lord!  Is that the time???  I'll see you soon.

The Deliciousness of the Sunday New York Times

Yes.  For me, the Sunday New York Times is delicious.  Why?  Well for one, I picked up the great pile of paper this past Sunday with a latte, as a treat.  I haven't picked one up in a couple of months.  Partly cost-savings, but more, laziness.  Sunday mornings I like to take very sloooowwwly.  Dashing off to get the paper doesn't easily fit in there!  Why a paper?  Because I grew up with my parents still getting the local daily paper to read in the evenings.  On Sundays, they'd get the local paper plus, the New York Times.  It was a huge paper with seemingly the whole world inside.  Before the World Wide Web - the New York Times is where we'd find out what was going on 6,000 miles away!  The paper helped to make Sunday mornings special.  We'd have a big breakfast with bacon, eggs, toast, fried tomatoes and sometimes, kidneys.  (English, remember???)  It was all very mellow and very different from the workaday world's bustle. 

Now, like everyone else, I usually get most of my news from the Web or from television.  Honestly, that's all I need to work my days.  I'll check the weather; make sure that no one's planning immediate destruction of me, mine and my neighborhood; find something salacious to think about, or be entertained by; see who's disgraced themselves today in the eyes of our puritanical society; and then check to see what my favorites are up to - be they on Facebook, email, or a sports team, my special charity, etc.  I really like being able to stay in touch with folks within a second if they're online, or a window of maybe 12 hours, if they're not.  I am all for progress.  With the internet I can easily live on the surface of life.  There are times, however, I crave more than the surface of things.  As you can see by my first paragraph, the New York Times does fill a certain nostalgic sensory memory for me.  Sunday morning was family time, generally free from most of the family dynamics that made the rest of the time - well, let's say challenging. 

The biggest benefit then, as now, is the depth of information found within the pages of the New York Times.  It has lots of news sections covering a myriad of interests, so that one can explore other worlds. And, there are usually enough sections so that you can share.   Once you finish reading your favorite, you then pass it on to the next person waiting for it.  We weren't a sports-oriented family, so that section usually came last.   However, there was fierce competition for the front page/news section, Science/Technology, and the Arts and Leisure sections.   You would settle in with a fresh cup of tea or coffee, grab your section of newspaper, and then just sink yourself into the paper for a deeply satisfying read.  And the Sunday New York Times is so big, you can easily take a couple of days to read it fully. 

I've learned a lot from the Sunday New York Times.  I learn a lot daily from the Internet.  But for sheer chewy satisfaction in information gathering, and a pleasurable time spent relaxing away from the constant media bombardment of today's world, I've got the Sunday New York Times.  What's even better - is no one is tracking my reading! lol.  I highly recommend you try it one Sunday - well, if you like to read.  Yes, perhaps the Sunday New York Times is a luxury in today's electronic world, but to me, a very desirable one.

Learning Curves and 92 Year Old Ladies

I have come out of my cave (or been returned to the planet by the aliens) and finally have signed myself up for Facebook.   It's almost overwhelming the number of folks on there!  And a LOT of fun.  Four hours easily disappeared yesterday as I stumbled around the site, took my webcam photo (v. grainy) and, I hope! sent a few messages to a few folks.  Not really getting the ettiquette of the whole thing but am sure that will come.  After seeing my afternoon disappear, I was temporarily buffaloed as to how one's to handle the time commitment involved there!  Plus one's emails, and other websites and still remember to eat! LOL. 

Mind you, it's also very spooky to sign up for a site and have dead friends pop up to "friend" you.  I wonder if the Facebook folks will do anything about people who don't access their page for years.  Maybe have an automatic delete on profiles after 3 years.  Otherwise, there's going to be this sea of information from dead people floating around the Web forever.  There they all are just "waiting" to ambush family and friends, or even, the grand kids.  Well, it's a kind of immortality I suppose.  It's vaguely Twilight Zone-ish - all these personality profiles living on in electronic space.

Then there are the notifications that suddenly pop up on my iTouch, even when it's playing music.  The music fades away so the notification pops up.  Or I'll have put my iTouch in standby mode, and left it on a table across the room only to have it beep at me.  It's creating a whole new world for me!  It's great being in instant touch with someone three thousand miles away.  'Course, I need to be careful before I post on others' walls - the words will probably be there for eternity too! 

Now.  As to those 92 Year Old Ladies.
Last Friday I found that one, a neighbor had just moved out to a convent in Pennsylvania to be cared for by the nuns there.  All she took with her was her bed, TV, nightstand, a lamp and her recliner.  She left everything else behind.  (Yes, I went to have a peek.)  I mean everything - there were photographs, old souvenirs of trips taken, books, letters, clothes, vases - all things that I consider necessary as part of my life.   Talk about paring down your life, she left very happily with the bare necessities.  There's a certain freedom in that isn't there?  No possessions to hold you back.  She was off to wait out the end of her life there.

The other?  That's my stepmother.  On Friday she got married to a gentleman with whom she's shared company for the past four years.  They were both in World War II though on opposite sides.  She served in the Canadian Red Cross and he served in the German Army.  What's striking to me is that my stepmother and, now, father are very enthusiastic about any and all new things.  They love to explore and discover new things.  They have a very youthful attitude towards living even with some physical challenges.  For them both, all things are possible.  Only their physical fraility may hold them back a bit.  It's very inspiring.  I know which 92 year old lady I'd like to be. 

Mother Nature Shrugs, and Japan's In The Way

Well, I had planned to whip off a rant or two here, or throw in some reflections about how the U.S. Postal System is it's own worst enemy, or talk about two ladies I know who are 92 years old - and I may yet.

For now...I am just blown away by the videos and pictures coming out of Japan after the earthquake and tsunami.  Yes, it's happened before in Southeast Asia, but there was almost no video coverage at the time.  We really only saw the heart-rending aftermath. 

Today, people took realtime images of the earthquake's effects whilst it was happening, and watched the actual tsunami as it made its initial incursion into Japan.  (Yes, initial.  Like earthquakes, there can be "after" waves as well.)

We actually see a ship caught in a gigantic ocean whirlpool, we see cars and trucks attempting to drive away from the onrushing water, only to be overtaken, and swallowed.  We see a violently swollen river filled with innumerable cars as they tumble along like toys in the rushing water.   We see enormous fields of floating debris including trees, cars, trucks, broken houses burning as they are pushed along by tsunami waters.  The scale of the devastation is damn near impossible to comprehend.  What's even sadder, is to know - logically - that too tiny to see amongst all the debris and the water - there are people there.  Or at least there were people there.  For those caught in the tsunami's torrent, I hope it was a quick ending. 

Japan has been deeply struck. However, they are an amazingly resilient people.  They managed to come back from the Atomic Bombs that the United States dropped on them in World War II.  Today, they have the technology, the know-how, the history and the resilience to survive if Nature allows them to do so.  My heart goes out to them.  I wish them well.