Random Blogging

inspiration

Interviewing

Give the Bitch a Gift!

Anxiety attacks that wake me up in the night. I was wondering why, and see from my journals that it must have to do with the time of year.

This past week I’ve awakened gasping for breath. don’t remember the dreams, but did remember one. It was the old repeat: going to a class where I was going to take a test, and being totally unprepared.

Last year, same time frame.

i got on the bike and took off to get home on my bike, out of the park down the steps and onto a very dark bike path. realizing it was a long way home. and dark, and then i got a flat tire. i stopped by a house, and the good news is that i recognized the boy who lived there, realized i did not have my phone or the keys, and that if i called dad or nic from the boy’s house phone, i didn’t remember their numbers. of course i could ask for a ride home, i realized when i woke up, but i didn’t have the keys.

Realizing that the anxiety must be about the deadlines for the extra work i get during the holidays… certainly a good thing to have the work, but it comes with the pressure.

For interesting, outside of me news, I read about terry gross (NYT) and what she does to prepare for an interview. It’s worth remembering, I think…

“She clarifies her thoughts first thing in the morning in the shower. That’s when she asks herself: What do I care about? What in all of this research is meaningful? It’s important to be away from her notes when she does this. She emerges from the shower with her ‘‘major destination points.’’ Then she goes to her office and refers back to her notes — sheafs of facts; dog-eared, marked-up books — for the details. Then she does the interview.”

and this is such a cool statement about how it feels to be interviewed by her:

‘‘Having the conversation’’ — that’s what’s compelling about the wish. It’s a wish not for recognition but for an experience. It’s a wish for Gross to locate your genius, even if that genius has not yet been expressed. It’s a wish to be seen as in a wish to be understood.”

Realizations

martha sent this

and she says: “A FRIEND IN ALABAMA SENT ME THIS:”
Medicare Part G
You’re a sick senior citizen and the government says there is no nursing-home care available for you. So what do you do?

Our plan gives anyone 65 years, or older, a gun (G) and 4 bullets.
You are allowed to shoot four Politicians.

Of course, this means you’ll be sent to prison, where you will receive three meals a day, a roof over your head, central heating and air conditioning and all the health care you need.

Need new teeth? No problem. Need glasses? That’s great. Need a new hip, knees, kidney, lungs or heart? They’re all covered.

As an added bonus, your kids can come and visit you at least as often as they do now.

And who will be paying for all of this? The same government that just told you they can’t afford for you to go into a home.

And, you can get rid of 4 useless politicians while you’re at it.

Plus, because you are a prisoner, you don’t have to pay any income taxes anymore.

Is this a great country or what?

Dreaming

Bolinas

I have spent the last week in Stinson Beach, a favorite with my son’s family. He lives right over the mountain, and many Mill Valley families whose children go to school with my grandchildren are here as well.

It’s the typical local getaway — the place not too far away next to the ocean….

Looking at Bolinas from the spit at Stinson Beach

I think I’ve walked the length of the beach just about every day, and at the north end, on the other side of the “spit,” is Bolinas, really just a stone’s throw away.

A row of houses built out over the water on piers is quite picturesque. Behind them are cliffs with homes perched here and there.

“I’ve never been to Bolinas,” my son said.

“Oh no,” I said. “We were always taking drives when you were a kid. We must have been there.”

“I don’t think so,” he said.

“The joke is, people living in Bolinas keep taking the signs down so that people can’t find it,” he said.

Since we could see where it was in relationship to where we were, it would be pretty easy to locate, even without signs.

“So, let’s go see,” I said.

Sure enough, there were no signs. And it did not feel familiar.

Looking at Stinson Beach from Bolinas
Yellow house
Is this leaning, wondered Ted.
This hotel is open two days a week.
A row house on the pier that can be seen from Stinson.
Paintings on side of building.
Small "temple"
In the museum's courtyard
Statements

but did you spot the gorilla?

Well, did you?

 

Just finished the book, too, by Richard Wiseman. He gives ways to spot the gorilla.. one way is to play more!

Another is to have the “problem” in your mind, work on it, and then let it sift to the background, do other things and let the subconscious mind make connections (When the old idea gets coupled up with something that has nothing to do with it, new ideas can be generated).

An exercise he gave… write a couple lines for a plot.

Then he threw out various words without any connection at all, and had the plot writer rewrite the plot, based on these unrelated words step by step… interesting.

When you see something new, don’t just let it go at that… for me, that might be about cameras (or the eye). Ok, so I know how to take a picture, but how does that thing — that machine body part) work?

Wiseman suggests making it a point to learn new things. “To help yourself become more curious, ask yourself a new question each week.”

On another note, I’m learning an amazing amount of stuff by playing a scrabble-like game with my daughter, via the cellphone… the last lesson i learned was at about 4 am this morning. I find that I’m picking up the game at odd times and just reshuffling cards, as a way to relax my mind, and in the process of this play (by the way, i used to hate games — now I’m loving them), i figured out how to use all my little chips (you get huge bonus points when you do that) — the word I “found” (by accident) was “nitwits…”

The funny thing is, I’m beginning to see that I can approach lots of other situations with the same game-playing mentality and maybe i can take something that’s been a pain and make it fun!