A Rare event - the total eclipse of the moon - DON'T MISS IT!

The last time a huge eclipse of the moon happened, I was on my way to work on the flower market in St. Louis.  It must have been during some "floral" holiday, because we had to be at work at 3:30 AM. (Yes, those flower people are freaks!) 

Even though I have never slept later than 9:00 AM in my life, and since I have been disabled for 4 years, I have not slept later than 7:00 AM on any given morning, I do not particularly enjoy being out of bed and at work at 3:30 AM to hurl flowers at ungrateful people.  But, in the words of the immortal Sophia Petrillo, "I Digress!"

Anywho, this was ONE morning that I enjoyed being up at 3:30 AM!  I had just pulled out of my parking space on the way to work (still dark outside, of course), and I drove one block and heard Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" come the radio station - K-HITS 96.3 (www.k-hits.com).  I turned the corner, and looked up at the end of the street.  The was a **HUGE** dark red moon, looking as if it was going to swallow the entire earth.  I know I was on my way to work, but those flowers - and the people - can wait. The radio station was cued to play Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" album with THIS OARTICULAR SONG starting with the moment the shadow started to creep across the face of the moon, and ended at the exact moment that the moon went out of eclipse! I had to stop and pull my truck over to the side of the street to savor the moment - the right music for the perfect event, before I drove on. I openly wept!

This song, my favorite from the album, was playing when the moon went into total eclipse, and turned deep blood red. This is bar-none, listed as the greatest non-lyrical vocal in rock music and probably ALL of music, as far as that goes:

"Great Gig In the Sky featuring the vocal mastery of Clare Torry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAydj4OJnwQ

Back to the big event:

https://patch.com/missouri/stlouis/see-super-blue-moon-total-eclipse-over-missouri

More information can be found on:
A very useful page, "World Clock and Time Zones" - look around this page, there are a lot of useful time calculators, etc:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

On space.com, the article with complete details:

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/monday-total-lunar-eclipse-moon-preview-101220.html

I don't know if it is an appreciation of beautiful, eerir and scerene things, the Wicca, the Hindu or the Buddhist coming out in me, but for me, these events are religious and awe-inspiring, even if it is just a shadow to you!

- Michael

Can I get one reservation on the Island of Misfit Toys for a bulldoggie?

This little event could not have happened at a more appropriate time!


I believe I hear the steam whistle and the clanging bell of the train that is making it's once-a-year trip through the movie 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer' to the Isle of Misfit Toys.  This train is booked for frequent stops, but I would like to add one more stop - my house!  She'll be comin' round the bend when she comes!


Last night, Mark went a couple blocks to Schnucks (local St. Louis grocery store chain) to get supper.  He wasn't gone more than 15 minutes.  He wasn't more than a minute out the door, and the bulldoggie, Sherman Peepin' Steven Burglar - Don't ask / don't tell! (AKA Sherman or Peeper!) started barking furiously from the back of the house.


Moments earlier, I had let the 2 larger dogs, Amanda, Yellow lab / Chow mix  and Denver, black lab / Sher Pei mix out into the back yard to go potty.. The entire yard (1 acre) is fenced in, and the fence has a hedge of bush honeysuckle growing around the entire perimeter of the yard.  Our back yard butts up immediately adjacent to Interstate 40, and wraps 1/4 around our subdivision as the highway takes a turn.  A half a block south of our subdivision,


The first of 3 visual aids:

The white box in the middle of this pic is my back yard.  We do have a chain link fence completely surrounding the back yard, as well as the huge sound barrier wall along I-40.    On the right-hand side of the pic is Warson Rd - a major thoroughfare.  Then you will note Clayton Road - very, very busy, indeed.  The interstate that borders our subdivision is self-explanatory, and there is Lindbergh Blvd. to the north (left).  It defies all explanation that ANY wildlife whatsoever can survive to get in our yard.  Considering the man-made barriers (the interstate, major roads and streets, and a completely closed in chain link fence!), West County St. Louis is famous for two plants, in particular: 1) Winter Creeper and 2) Bush honeysuckle.  The winter creeper is a vine that grows quickly, and will overtake anything, particularly trees, in it's path.  The bush honey suckel grows so thick that even a small dog would have trouble finding his way through the thicket.


The moral of this part of the saga is: "How is it possible that ANY wildlife can get into our back yard, with the lone exception of small birds that can fly quite some distance?"


Needless to say, we have more than our fair share of squirrels, and a large colony of chipmunks that we share our 1 acre with.  Some time in late November, on one of those wonderful rare, balmy nights, I heard an owl outside our window.  We live 3 miles from the large St. Louis Galleria Mall - , and a good 20 + miles before any true wilderness or forested areas become the common feature of the land.   A few weeks before that, our dogs started backing furiously - glaring out the patio doors in the great room.  I jumped up and ran to see what was disturbing the peace.  Two large turkeys were looking back at me - too startled to move for a moment!  They were IN the back yard!  How can that be possible?  Turkeys are known to be poor flyers.  The could not have possibly come across any of the major traffic arteries surrounding our home and have expected to live through the adventure!  I had a choice: keep the dogs in the house, and let them tear the crap out of the house, trying to get out and chase the turkeys, or let them out into the back yard. I slid that door open, and all 4 dogs charged across the back yard in one pack. Those turkeys took off in a fast sprint towards the back fence, and thus - I-40!   Since I didn't hear any screeching tires or deadly crashes, and we didn't find any turkey innards on the shoulder of the interstate the next day, I think they somehow found their way to safety.  Personally, I can't imagine the shock of  being a piss-poor flyer, in the first place - and flying over a sound barrier (leaving a heavily wooded area), and immediately flying over a very busy interstate!


Anywho... We have also been confronted TWICE with deer. Once, a deer was trying to climb over the fence AND through the very thick bush honey suckle to get IN the back yard.  Are ya nuts?  The second deer - just a couple weeks back - did make it into the back yard. Once again, the dogs were letting me know that they were barking at more than "just a squirrel".  I initially couldn't see what had got their attention.  I mean - how big can an animal be that has to squeeze through the thicket, through chain-link fence, and across some of the busiest thoroughfares in the area - and already 20 miles into a metropolitan area?  You guessed it! This time, Mrs. Deer made it over the fence, through the bush honeysuckle, and into the yard...but...I didn't see her until the dogs were already chasing her across the yard and towards the sound barriers along the highway! OMG, indeed!  Since that brush was so thick, the only place for her to go would be to attempt to jump the sound barrier.  Do you know what's on the other side of that barrier!  200,000 cars a day moving at 60+ MPH! Once again, I didn't hear any crashes or tires skidding, but I honestly don't know what became of her!


(The end of Chapter 1 ...he he he)


Onward!


At any rate, last night, Mark went to the Schnucks (near the intersection of Lindbergh and I-40, in the map, above) to get supper. He wasn't gone more than a minute, and the 2 larger dogs wanted to go outside for a while. I let them out, and returned to my chair to attempt to knit a leaf to attach to a knitted flower.  I was 30 seconds into my concentration when Sherman (mean looking bulldoggie!) was standing in the entrance between the great room and the kitchen, in the back of the house.  When this particular breed of bulldog decides to announce an intruder, the announcement is not quiet and polite!  It is a mix between a bark and a roar!   It is shocking to many people, and many other bulldog's barks are very high-pitched and down right yappy!  Yes - the mascot of the US Marines YAPS instead of BARKS!  :)


Sherman Peeper was in full-on attack mode and stance.  Roar / Barking, front legs spread to steady his beefy self, and he absolutely would not enter the great room. I even tried to push him, and he resisted!  We are just far enough away from downtown St. Louis, and far enough off the beaten path to keep vagrants and people on foot out of our area.  I knew it wasn't a person that he was barking at.  Knowing that the 2 larger dogs were outside that room and in the back yard, I was fairly confident that there was no wildlife out there, either.  What could he be barking at so furiously?


I keep 5 gallon buckets outside underneath the roof line to catch rain water.  I can water my houseplants that I keep outside in the summer for 2 weeks from the water that I catch on a good downpour.  This portion of our house was built in Frank Lloyd Wright style, and without gutters.  The water runs off the back of the house in one big sheet, and if I don't have my handy buckets in place, it splashes down on a bed of pea gravel to allow run off.    When nighttime temps threaten to go below 55, I bring in my tropical house plants, only leaving the pineapples and the Cherimoya tree outside until the temps dip in the lower 40's at night, then they come in for the winter, too.  I use my empty 5 gallon buckets to sit the plants on to keep the "kids" from eating them!  I didn't need one of the buckets, so I left it out under the eaves.  We had a couple good rains before the temps turned bitterly cold,  and the last bucket that was still full of water froze solid.  The ice was already bulging above the rim of the bucket, I believe that another good freeze might crack and ruin my trusty, useful bucket.  was waiting for a day that was in the 30's to allow the water to melt just a bit, so I could dump out the 5 gallon chunk of ice without it sticking in the bucket and giving me trouble.  I will spare you the details, but I never wear clothes in the house, and only on the coldest of days to I wear a simple robe around the house.  About 5:30 PM last night, I was in my snug little robe, and decided that I could step outside quickly to dump the ice out of the bucket - step back inside when it was all over, and the entire maneuver shouldn't take more than 10 seconds. Presto!  I dumped that ice out so fast that I didn't get goosebumps on ANYTHING!  :)  My other goal in this exercise was to dump the ice out carefully, so as to preserve it's form - so I could watch it melt and Mother Nature take her course.  This is a photo of the subject at hand:

 

Back to the wildly bark / roaring, highly pissed off, fearful bulldoggie!   We know that there couldn't have been any unsavory characters in the great room or outside - those bases have already been covered.  I am here to tell you that I couldn't not get this little butchy man to go into the great room, much less outside to go potty with the others..  Eventually, with his thick neck as stretched out as he could ("I want my head a little closer to the villain, but I want to keep the rest of my body away from it and as safe as possible!"), he mustered up enough cajones (Ka - Ho - nes!) to approach the glass of the sliding doors.  The other dogs were already outside - what the hell can he be looking at that bothers him so much.  Have I told you that for 15 minutes, he never stopped barking / roaring?

I opened the back door quickly.  The other dogs ran back inside - but he would NOT go out!  All the encouraging and shoving wouldn't budge him!  What was this tuffie barking at?  The intruder is in the picture immediately above these 2 paragraphs - a chunk of ICE!  GOOD GOD, GERTIE!  If I take a piece of aluminum foil and crunch it a bit, he will tuck tail and run out of the kitchen.  Every Tuesday (trash day!) is hell for this poor baby!  I have to put a new trash bag in the trash pail.  When I shake the bag in he air to full extend the bag before I put it in the can, he is outta there in a split second!  This 'mean' bulldog is afraid of the weirdest things...anything that moves or makes sound!  Thankfully, he doesn't panic when I play my keyboards.  He can most often be found in the mornings sleeping right beside one of my Leslie speakers, or in the music room with me at any time when I am practicing.

Back to the story at hand....  I had to wait until Mark got home from shopping (15 minutes).  I told him why his "baby" was barking so furiously in the back of the house. Mark went out in the back yard, and Sherman VERY reluctantly followed him - until Mark took a step towards the chunk of ice. Sherman shot out of there like a torpedo leaving a submarine. He ran halfway across the back yard before he thought he was safe from that "Ice Monster".  Mark spend the next 10 minutes trying to coax Sherman closer.  Sherman trusts NOTHING, but he does trust us.  Slowly, and after several attempts, Sherman did work up the courage enough to come to Mark, who was standing immediately next to the ice creature!  Sherman VERY skeptically sniffed the ice once.  We both could see the wheels turning in his head. The look on his face said, "Oh, is THAT what it was all about?  It's just ICE!"  Then he sniffed again.  The look changed to, "I am so embarrassed that I wasted so much energy worrying about a chunk of ice!  Then - he started running by the ice, playing with the other dogs, and completely ignoring that it was even there.  I thought we might have to have a re-introduction this morning when he went out to potty for the first time, but nope.  Even though he is literally often afraid of his own shadow (honestly!), he is a pretty smart cookie once he gets it all figured out to his own satisfaction.   Here is Mr. "Meanie".  I'm tellin' ya - with Bulldogs, it is 'All just a look!"

  Look at that lower lipper! He might be deathly afraid of a chunk of ice, but he does know how to cover himself up with his comforter!


I have his ticket ready for the Isle of Misfit Toys..  My mean baby is broken.  He is not mean at all.  Tell the conductor to make a stop at the Kirkwood Train Station.  I will make sure he doesn't miss his boarding time!  WHOOO HOOOO!  ALL ABOARD!!!


- Michael

You know what, Honey? It's NOT all about Forgiveness!

You know what, Honey?  It's NOT all about Forgiveness!


When I was an active nurse in a nursing home in St. Louis, I had a patient that had been admitted to that particular nursing home two years prior to my employment.  She was an Alzheimer's patient that was in late stage 3 Alzheimer's when she was admitted.  She was completely non-verbal.  She never made a sound.  She could not walk, feed herself, dress herself, or do any activities herself required for daily living. She never opened her eyes, and sat all day in a wheel chair, with her hands folded in her lap, rocking back and forth constantly.


One of the nurse's aides that worked with me was wheeling Doris to the dining room, so they could feed her lunch.  As the wheelchair was rolling down the hallway passing the nurse's station, Doris said, "You know what, honey?"  The nurse's aide was about to interrupt her, and I raised my hand to try to get her (the aide) to let the patient talk!  From what I understood from her family, Doris had not said a word to anybody in over 5 years!  I went to her wheelchair and I said, "No, what, sweetie?"  She said, as clear as a bell, "Human beings are the nastiest animals!"  I know I had tears running down my face.  I bent down, and gave her the biggest hug I could muster.  I said, "Honey, you haven't said a word in over FIVE years, and this is probably the most profound statement I have ever heard - and that you have ever spoken!"  Her eyes were always closed.  But - she did smile as the astonished aide pushed her wheelchair towards the dining room for lunch.


Segway:  I have been following the story of Dr. William Petit and his family of Connecticut.


If you more details, you can find them here:
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Dr-William-Petit-Speaks-Out-for-the-First-Time/1


On a Sunday morning in July 2007, the close-knit Petit family attended church services in their Connecticut suburb like they usually did. They had no premonition of the terror about to take place.


According to police, two convicted felons who were out on parole randomly spotted Jennifer and Michaela at a neighborhood convenience store. After following them home, 44-year-old Steven Hayes and 26-year-old Joshua Komisarjevsky plotted out a horrific home invasion.


After Sunday dinner for her family that night, Dr. Petit fell asleep reading the paper while the girls watched television and headed off to bed.  At 3 a.m., the two armed intruders broke in. Dr. Petit was the first victim, bludgeoned with a baseball bat and tied unconscious to a pole in the basement. Jennifer, Hayley and Michaela were bound to their beds and tortured throughout the night.


No banks are open at 3 AM. They tortured this family until Monday morning.  They forced Jennifer, William's wife and the mother of his children, at gun point to drive to the bank and withdraw $15,000.  They said that if they got the money, no additional harm would be done to their family.  I'm thinking the criminals were lying about that, too.  To help protect her family, Jennifer drove one of the criminals to the bank, while the other held the remaining family members hostage in the home.  Once they arrived at the bank, Jennifer went inside and wrote a check for $15,000, and on a deposit slip, she wrote a message to the teller, stating that she and her family were being held hostage for ransom, and she asked the teller in the note to call 911. 


The teller did, indeed call 911, but it took them a HALF AN HOUR to get to this home - in a suburb!  Wait - there's more!  Within that half-hour, everybody but William would be dead, and the only reason he survived the brutal attack on his family was that the criminals thought he was already dead.

The criminal then drove Jennifer back to the house, where they proceeded to tie her to the newel post of the stair case.  The sexually assaulted the 11 yr old girl, and then poured gasoline around each daughter and Jennifer.  These criminals then set the house on fire, and ran out the door.  William Petit had been unconscious since his brutal beating the night before. The smell of smoke stirred him, and he managed to break free from the post. He crawled upstairs and out the door, laying in the yard yelling for help. A neighbor heard his cries for help, and called 911 - the second time!  But it was too late.  Both of his daughters and his wife died of smoke inhalation.  By the time the fireman had arrived, the house was a total loss.  They found Jennifer (the wife) at the top of the steps. She had broken free of her ties, and was running up the steps to save her daughters when she collapsed and died.  She died of smoke inhalation, and her body was burned beyond recognition.  The medical examiner had a good idea who she was, but a positive identification had to be made using her dental records.


Are there no police?  If I had the financial resources of Mr. Donald Trump, Mr. Bill Gates, Miss Oprah Winfrey or Ms. Martha Stewart, I would set aside several  **million** dollars a year to fight people such as those employed by the county.  Somebody is horribly negligent, and because of their negligence, 3 valuable lives were ruthlessly taken, and one man's life is permanently gutted.  The criminals were captured.  The oldest man was sentenced to death and is on Death Row.  The second man has not yet gone to trial.  Is it a surprise to you that he has already plead "Not Guilty" to all charges?  How incredibly stupid can he be (and the lawyer supporting that plea!)  Dear readers, I will not stop to consider your upbringing or your moral beliefs. What you believe is your business - not mine.  I do believe that this man deserves to die, and I believe a lethal injection is not adequate. Simply put, some people are a boil on the ass of man-kind, and they deserve to die - outright.  In fact, they should die in the same manner in which their victims suffered.


Even though I definitely was not in the house when these horrid crimes were committed, I firmly believe that when these 3 vivacious lives were taken, they did not die by merely going to sleep.  I do believe that those that kill should die the same way their victims died.  I do believe in the entire judicious (trial) process, and I believe they deserve a fair trial. It should happen QUICKLY and PUBLICLY, and not years later.  The American Public tends to have a short memory for these events. A trial and punishment years after the fact is a wasted opportunity. Granted, I am in 100% agreement that these people deserve to die.  I think it is a wasted opportunity to educate people in the following manner.  If you kill, the message should be: "You are going to die for your crime...you are going to die quickly, and publicly, to serve as an example of 'How Not To Live Your Life', and "This is What Will Happen To You If You Violate Another human Being".


In her quest to be the 'conscious and the mind of America', and a good reporter, Oprah asked Mr. William Petit if he could ever find forgiveness for these ruthless murders.  He responded by saying that he has received many tracts from religious groups stating that these acts were "God's Will" (C'mon, are you serious?).  He politely asked the tract-senders to reconsider, because "God" would never be behind an act so cruel to individuals who just came home from his house of worship.  He also stated that he is very angry with God at the moment, and that several smart people have told him that it is perfectly acceptable for him to be angry with God, because God is "Big, and he can handle it."  I will agree with Mr. Petit. Actually, during the entire interview, there wasn't a statement that he made that I did not agree with.  He went on to say that there are other forces at work in this world, and that God and "the Devil" both are given too much credit and too much blame for things they might have have had a hand in.  I am in **no way** belittling this man's experience. I would never attempt to do that in 1,000 of my lifetimes. My heart and soul cries out for him, and I am hungry to see the perpetrators see a painful, vicious demise?  Why?  Because they deserve it - we've already discussed this point.  However, it didn't take a mass murder and a ruthless act of arson for me to realize that God and the Devil do not receive credit (or blame) for every act on this planet.  People have free will, and exercise it every minute of every day - and there are other evil (and good) forces working daily around us that are a bit more conspicuous than we originally would imagine.


Mr. Petit went on to say that since it is inherent in the human constitution to hate evil, any forgiveness for these people is, in his own words, "inappropriate."  Oprah said one thing in response to this answer to her question, "That is a very good answer!"  I also firmly believe that there are many people on this planet who commit horrid acts that will never deserve forgiveness.  AND.....simply because one's misdeeds are not quite as bad as the acts that these 2 men have committed doesn't mean you are a good person. Bad has many levels - and they are all just that - BAD! Just because you aren't Charles Manson does not also make you Mother Theresa.


Since this incident, Mr. Petit (he was a prominent physician in his 50's) has lived with his parents.  His younger sister has been at his side every minute of every day, trying to keep him company and to ensure his physical and mental safety.


Forgiveness, dear readers, was never meant to be a reward for the person who wronged you!  Please review the definition of true Sadomasochism.  No, this word does not belong solely to a certain group of people interested in sexual pleasures derived from bondage.  The original term is useful in psychology.  For example, a child has learned that if he does something inappropriate, he will be punished in some way.  In addition, he (or she!) has learned that after his punishment, his parent will feel guilty for inflicting severe punishiment, and the parent will then lavish him with gifts.  What has he learned?  I act up, I get punished...then I get rewarded for acting up!  That is the true definition of Sadomasochism. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadomasochism


Apply what we have just learned to the case of someone forgiving a wrong-doer as a gift or reward for the perpetrator.  Can you say, "S & M in it's truest form?", because that's exactly what would have just happened here. What should also be gleamed from this little exercise is that forgivness is for the person who was wronged, and never for the person or people who has done the inflicting. Why would we want to give an evil person a gift or a reward?  Count me out of that one!


We have determined that forgiveness is, indeed, a gift, and in fact, a necessity for the victim.  These principles also have to be worked every day, all day long.  There is rarely a "cure all".  Trust me when I tell you that I have to mentally (and sometimes verbally!) kick my mother, and most of my own family, for that matter, of the piano bench every morning of my life when I practice my music?  Why?  Because it was a favorite past time for my mother and my older brother to pull up a chair on either side of the piano and LOUDLY mock and jeer me while I practiced my music as a child.  I can't tell you how many times I have caught myself seething to the point that I can't play another note, and I turn beet red and start shaking.  Vidions of my fingers wrapping around their throats until they are no longer breathing are stabbing at my brain.  I have to stop myself immediately and coach myself, "Michael, don't ever let anybody live in your head rent-free." and "Anger, frustration, hatred, and loathing are very heavy cloaks to pick up in the morning when you get out of bed, and put on your shoulders every day to wear throughout your day!  I have to tell them, "I forgive you. Not because you deserve a gift. This gift is not for you - and it will never be for you.  This gift me for ME, because I am a good, very talented, beautiful human being who has worked hard to make this world a better place, which is more than I can say for yourselves!"  I have to give them one good symbolical kick, and their asses land on the hard, cold floor beside the piano or Hammond bench. THEN...I play better music than I ever have.  However, once doesn't do it.  I find myself having to shoo them off at least every-other day. 

These things are never completely finished, and they take daily maintenance.


I do have one thing to say to Mr. Petit. In this round, I am in no way lessening my personal experience because it wasn't near the level of the hell that you experienced.  Remember - there are different "Hells" right here on Earth! My mother and most of my immediate (and some extended!) family are monsters.  My immediate family is soaked with individuals who have committed any where from minor to major infractions against their fellow man.  Stress, bitterness, hatred, seathing, and the list goes on only serves to give away your power. YOU deserve to keep that power. You were a prominent physician that can no longer practice because of what two men did to you and your family.  I can never and I will never be able to fathom you level of grief, suffering, anger and dispair.  I can only use my life as an example, because that is my own personal view point.  I can tell you that even though I have suffered at the hands of idiots, and if I ever returned to their vicinity, I'm sure they would be more than thrilled to try to pour their famous crap on me again.  What a bad mistake that would be - but I digress!


I you do not reclaim what is left of your life from the worthless idiots that took away your world, there would be 4 deaths in the family instead of 3.  That would be another senseless loss.  I never knew your family, but I guarantee you that they would not want you to wither away and cease to function as a result of their deaths.  Bette Davis is the only person who ever wanted that!


Mindless things that other people will say that you will never hear out of my mouth:


1) "Oh, it was God's Will!"
My response:  "How do you know, are you God?"


2) "Oh, they're better off." or, "They're in a better place!"
My response: "Where the hell do you people come up with this crap?  Do you run it through the filters in your own mind before you mindless repeat what you have heard other people say?"


What should be said, "I am here for you if you need anything, or you want to talk." Or - give them a big hug. No more is usually wanted, or is necessary.


Dr. Petit, you have to say, "I release you, you heavy burdensome cloak of fear, anger, hatred and disgust!  I don't forgive you, you criminals. I never have and I never will. You do not deserve forgiveness.  But, for one more minute, you will not steal my power that you did not deserve in the first place, nor should you expect that I will give it away to you."  Then, I play music on one of my instruments. Music is incredibly healing.  I go to my local Missouri Botanical Garden, to the Climatron Tropical Rainforest, and even in the middle of the winter, the warm sun beams down on my face, and I am surrounded by a rainforest filled with plants and birds. You have to find what works for you, and you have a lot more work than I have to do! 


Poet Maya Angelo, a St. Louis native, once wrote when asked of her personal reprieve: "My Garden is the place I want to go after my last breath is refused, but before I meet God."  Personally, I have several of those places.  The Missouri Botanical Gardens is one of them, The Shaw Nature Preserve or The Butterfly House are others, as is my piano or Hammond bench, or a local nationally-known art show.  Those are my places of refuge.  You need to find your own, and try your best to take those demons by the horns.  We are already mourning 3 losses - a 4th loss caused by a person who ceases to flourish because the actions of another person (a thief, a murder, or a bad person, in general!) is unjustified.  To live under the heavy cloak that they thrust upon you can be considered the same action as allowing them to commit yet another crime against you.   Not only will is effect you, but the burden will be transferred to those around you, creating more damage in the wake of the original misdeed.  I did not just lapse into highfalutin' duck-speak.  I can list names of individuals who are presently living such lives.  Trust me when I tell you - it isn't pretty!


- Michael

News headline of the day, "TSA Defends Screening of Indian Ambassador"

Two quotes from this article:
1) "The TSA, however, said that after looking into what took place, it found that no policies were violated."
2) "Passengers may request that a pat-down be conducted in private," Kimball said.

Here is the story, in it's entirety:
http://tinyurl.com/TSA-Defends

There are so many things about those  2 statements, alone, that offend me in so many ways tha Ione blog will never be enough for me fully express my point, however, that won't stop me from trying.

Let me state the obligatory comment that I am fully aware that the TSA was established to protect the United States from attacks from unsavory characters.  **THAT** was the original intent.  Now, TSA people, this is where it was predicted that you would fall flat on your faces, and once again, you haven't let us down.  I know it has been a long, long time since any of this has been exercised in this country, and the "Dumbing Down of America" is occurring at a faster rate than ever before, but common sense must also be used in these proceedings.

The woman in question is an ambassador (have we forgotten the meaning of that word?) and a  sari-wearing Hindu woman from a non-threatening country.  A simple pass through a common metal detector would have been ample, you simpletons.

No policies were violated?  According to WHO - you?  And - who the hell are YOU? 

Let's review one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes:

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." - Innocents Abroad (Mark Twain!)


That being said, we have to please understand that the entire world does not now, nor has it ever revolved around the United states of America. Now now - not ever.  There are other people in this world who, thankfully, do not have the same morals, standards or beliefs as the American society.

It is never "OK" or permissible for anyone to stick their hands up an Indian woman's sari, or "pat" them down.

My #2 quote was ""Passengers may request that a pat-down be conducted in private," Kimball said.

Did ya not see what I wrote in the sentence above the one I just wrote?  In public or private, bodily invasions are not OK for many societies - especially women who are trying to be an ambassador, you fricken idiots!

Going forward, please understand that all other societies in this world do not base their belief system on the closed minds of the American public.  I know it has been dumped far behind, but common sense must be exercised, and respect to ALL humans must be extended, even if they are outside the prison you built for your belief system.

- Michael

Gifts that I have received that I cannot re-gift

It is not because of the lack of effort exerted that I have learned that I have received several gifts that I will never take for granted, nor will I be ungrateful that I have received them. No earthly being handed me these gifts, but I believe I have received them in a 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens sort of fashion.  One of the gifts that I have to immediately divulge is honesty and openness,  One would be inclined to think that I am related to the singing family, The Judds!  The difference between myself and members of my family is that my aim is deadly accurate.  I will mention them frequently in this blog, because indirectly they are responsible for (not purposefully!) forming the person that I have become today. It seems like I learn everything the hard way.  I have learned that these gifts cannot be bought, sold, taught, thrust upon anyone or given away freely.  The gifts that I  have been fortunate to receive are:


1) The mental flexibility of a child
Several years ago, I had the privilege of meeting John Foppe.  He is a motivational speaker that was born without arms.  He doesn't even have stubs. For more info on John:
http://johnfoppe.com/

or this YouTube search:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=john+foppe&aq=0


The last time I spoke with him, John lives alone, in a completely unassisted house.  The only assistive device he has in the entire house is a small hook on the back of his bedroom door that he can use to help him put his pants on, but he can do the task without the hook (such as when he is staying in a hotel during his travels).  He drives a completely unaltered car, combs his hair, eats, handles a coffee cup - and every other function that you and I can do - without arms / hands.  I asked him the obvious question:  "How CAN you do it?" Dear reader, if you have ever tried to brush your teeth or shave our face with your teeth, you would understand my  inquiry. For a moment, let yourself think of a small baby sitting in a baby carrier.  I think it is a favorite pastime of every baby to suck on their toes.  Now...let me see you do it.  We MIGHT be able to do it, but it is not going to be easy, or an enjoyable experience.  The difference?  Flexibility.  John told me that as soon as other babies learned how to use their hands more effectively, they soon forgot to keep the lower half of their body flexible.  He told me that if he ever lost that flexibility, he would loose his entire level of independence.  In summary, his answer was, "I never lost the flexibility that I had as a baby."


Let's go lateral with that thought.  I can't tell you how many times I see a small, innocent child in a public place just being a tiny, innocent human being.  They are safely and unassumingly exploring their world. THEN.... I see a parent step into the scene.  I glance at the parent, and mumble, "Oh, baby!  Do the scene in 'Look Who's Talking, learn to walk and get the hell out of there!"  I just have to give the parent(s) a quick glance, and the vision of this child's future in the crystal ball of the future becomes amazingly clear.  They are going to develop into a narrow minded, miserable and often bigoted human being.  This experiment has been done many times.  Place these children, all about 13 months old, in the same play enclosure, and watch them:  A physically challenged child...an Asian child...a black child...a Hispanic child...a White child....   THEN WATCH THEM.  They will play with each other, and be quite content.  Ten years later, place the SAME children in a play area....and watch them!  Notice a difference?  You will, indeed.  You have often heard the phrase, "Children can be so cruel!"  Have you ever wondered how they children became so cruel?  I will be the first person to acknowledge the fact that a 10 yr. old child has a very advanced brain, and they are quite capable of forming their own thoughts and beliefs, completely independent of outside pressures.  I will also be the first person to point out that these children were taught their belief systems by their parents. Had they kept their social beliefs when pertaining to other individuals, you should see no difference in the interactions between the babies and the pre-teens.


We can apply the same thought process to things we make, and how we see and otherwise explore the world.   Small children do things purely to explore their world.  When they draw a picture, for example, they don't know that "Lucy can't be in the sky with diamonds!"  If he wants her there, he draws her there!  He has no bad filters that tell him that he can't do it.  Picasso once said, "When I was a child, I could paint like Raphael, but it took me a lifetime to learn to paint like a child.”  You will be a much happier, adventuresome person if you explore your world with less filters, and you maintain the curiosity and flexibility of a child!
 
2) Self-esteem
Like many of the gifts I am going to list, most folks without self-esteem really don't know they have become victim of a low self image.  Did you do something bad in your past, or are you currently active in not being a good human being?  If you have wronged individuals, you need to make it right with them.  After righting wrongs, proceed forward being a better person.  A low self esteem is usually the result of one of two things:
A) Somebody unjustly told you that you were worthless, would never 'amount to anything', you have no talent or abilities, or you are not a good person - and you believed them! or B) You truly are a bad person, you have no intent to leave this world better than you found it, and you are doing nothing to improve yourself.


One of my many mentors, Judge Judy, said, "You should always stick by your family - unless they bring you down. Then dump them!"  'Nuff said!  My mother, older brother, and other members of my immediate family would openly mock my talents. They would literally cackle at anything I ever attempted to make, and when I played the piano, it was not uncommon for my mother and brother to each pull up a chair - one on each side of the bench - and LOUDLY jeer at me as I tried to play my instrument.  For the record, neither one of them can play anything...ever.  They chastised me for being who I am, and for the talents that I have worked so hard to develop.  What did I do?  I dropped them like a hot rock. Please let it be known that you have absolutely no obligation to anyone on the planet because you were born into a particular family.  You are held accountable only for the CHOICES you make.  You (and I!) were not given a choice when we were plopped in the middle of a family.  The only option I had was to correct the incident that at first seems to be a mistake made by Mother Nature.  The silver lining to this cloud is the fact that even though I am blind in one eye, it was not a difficult task for me to take one quick glance at my family, and realize very early on (from the time of my birth!) that these people are genuinely screwed up.  I made a pact with myself that went something like this: "Whatever they are doing, I need to be doing the opposite thing! How can I possibly go wrong?"  In 42 years, that philosophy hasn't let me down once.


3) The desire to learn as much as I can, every chance I get - about everything I can!


Many people that plod aimlessly about the planet have never given so much as a thought about the function of the gray matter in their skulls, or how to improve and maintain those brain cells.


There are countless sources that will prove to you that "if you don't use it, you will lose it." No, the brain is not a muscle - could you imagine that?  However, every thought you have ever had (including dreams) is the result of chemical reactions between the cells in your brain.


Cutting to the chase:  If you do not regularly (daily!) to some sort of concentrated brain-building exercise, you can and WILL get 'dumber'.  The proportions are predictable.  The less time someone spends on trying to improve their brain function, the more they think they can rule some small part of their world, and those people around them.  In other words, the smaller the brain, the bigger the mouth, if ya know what I mean.
Learn a new language. Why?  Because when you learn a new language, you are doing several things simultaneously.  It is virtually impossible to learn a new language as an adult and *not* learn more about your own native language.  Another bonus is the fact that we learn of other cultures, and we expand our taste and our minds.  A Mark Twain quote that  absolute love:


Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.
- Innocents Abroad (Mark Twain)


I can report that I have played keyboard instruments since I was 6 yrs old by ear. I could not read music any more difficult than a child's one-note-at-a-time primer. You know - the huge single staffs with brightly colored notes!  Two years ago, I decided that I was going to teach myself how to read music.  While I doubt that I will ever be able to sight-read complicated Mozart pieces, I have found that there is no music that I cannot read if I set my mind to it, and practice...practice...  practice!  I am now reading pieces such as Scott Joplin's 'Maple Leaf Rag' and 'The Entertainer' and Freddy Mercury's (Queen) 'Bohemian Rhapsody" - and 20 other songs EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE!  I play certain songs for specific reasons. Two of those reasons are because I like the song and because there are notes in there or other techniques that I know I need to practice.  I have come a very long way in 2 years time! I view Music and other brain work like an exercise program.  If I have played through my daily practice pieces, and I still feel that I have not accomplished enough on a particular day, I will open one of my 100 lbs (honestly!) of music books, and find a song that I haven't played before - then I will play it through.  I am not satisfied until I have struggled with a piece a bit. Then, I know I  have sufficiently worked my brain.  I hear people make excuses, "I don't have that much time!" But I bet you a dime to a Dixie Doughnut that they will be sitting night after night staring blankly at a TV, eh?  I have 3 TVs in my home, and I can record television on one of our 5 home computers. I do my fair share of TV watching, however, I absolutely will not just sit and stare at a TV.  I never have in my life!  I am *always* doing something else while the TV is on.  In the past 2 years, I have also taken up knitting.  My Dr. suggested that I take up crochet or knitting because the arthritis getting worse in my hands.  I tried to crochet.  I think I would rather die than wield a crochet hook.  In a matter of months, I went from not knowing how to knit a stitch to an advanced level knitter.  I have followed one preprinted pattern out of all the patterns that I have knit, and that was for my first pair of gloves.  I wrote the patterns for the other 4 sweaters, 2 scarves and 6 hats from scratch.  Now chant with me, "We must, we must...we must increase the BRAIN!"


Have I told you about my dreams?  I will go into detail in a later blog, but in short, I have at least 3 - 5 dreams every night of my life.  Now, because my poor little brain has nothing better to do when I sleep, I have been going back over the past several years and dreaming re-runs.  Re-run dreams are not at all new to me, but the way I am dreaming them IS new to me.  I go back and pick up an old dream, but this time, there is exponentially more detail in each dream!  I am now redecorating dreams!  People that were once shadows, for example, how have faces and names. If something in a dream was plain concrete, it is now beautiful green marble, and the dream remodeling list continues!  I am here to tell you that if you work that brain DAILY and beyond your normal living skills and activities, your brain WILL grow. If you do not do so, our brain WILL shrink, and you are no exception to this rule.


4) A sense of humor
You're either born with a sense of humor - or you're not.  Souls around you will be miserable if you were born without it.  Making folks miserable and controlling them, in itself is fodder for some.




5) PASSION!
Again - you're either born with it, or you are born without it.
To live life without passion is to live life without a purpose!  "Lackluster" is no way to live, people! 
Then again, there are those who are jealous of anybody passionate - and that is a desperate shame.  They usually employ techniques which involve 'lowering' the passionate individual.  Lowering is used to bring the vivacious person down to the lackluster person's level.  I have a much needed news bulletin for those folks:
There is absolutely nothing you can do to me that will ever reduce me to your level - so don't even try it.


6) Paying attention to detail.
I have learned by (the lack of) family influences to pay close attention to detail. It shows in my music, my knitting, my personal appearance, and anything that I do. My motto is: "If I can't do it right, and if I can't do an impeccable job when I am doing it, I won't do it at all!"  People want results, but they don't want to put the effort into learning how to do the task correctly.  You will never end with good results if you don't invest the time and effort in refining a skill (Interpreted: Do not try to cook a new dish for your family get-together if it is the first time you've attempted the dish!  Practice FIRST.)  I guarantee you the first item you knit will not be the best thing you will ever knit.  With some practice, studying and hard work, your knitting will be perfect - for example. 


7) The complete lack of jealousy.
When my family would leave church - yes church, my mother and sisters would cackle openly at the dress that somebody was wearing, how a member of the church was dressed, of how somebody sang a special song.  They weren't laughing with them - they were laughing AT them.  I lived with that crap for 17 years, until I had my fill, and I had to get the hell out of there!  From the time I was an absolute infant, I learned that jealousy is a disease that eats it's willing victims from the inside out, spewing crap on whoever is unfortunate enough to be near them.


I knew that if I wanted a certain item that I could save my money to get it.  I also knew that if I wanted to learn a skill (read music, play by ear, knit, and the list goes ON and ON), I had to work hard, and I, too, could do those things.


Jealousy is not alone in her endeavor. She has 7 other sisters (the 7 deadly sins):

1. luxuria (extravagance)
2. gula (gluttony)
3. avaritia (avarice/greed)
4. acedia (acedia/discouragement or listness)
5. ira (wrath)
6. invidia (envy)
7. superbia (pride)

I have not been delivered from **anything** - I have been SPARED these things.


While it is true that it is better to be delivered from these things than to wallow in the foul stew that these things secrete for the rest of your life, the true gift is to be spared these debilitating obstacles to being a good, productive human.


Those are the gifts I have been given, in exchange for the things that were taken from me. Was it a fair trade?  You bet - and I would do it all over again if I could!


- Michael

My photography...tips and tricks and how I (permanently) view the world!

Here are a few tips on how I see the world of photography.

I am often asked, "What brand of camera do you use?" 

Most people won't ask you what brand of piano you're playing.  It isn't necessarily the brand of camera (or the piano) that makes all the difference, it's how you use it!  I have seen some nationally award winning artists at top-rate art shows that use a child's camera as their art medium!

This might sound like a highfalutin philosophy, but this is how I see it:

Lighting plus perspective create mood.  In my mind, the subject of your photography is, indeed, very important, but it doesn't stand a chance if the angle, cropping and lighting doesn't offer a strong helping hand to your photography.

This photograph was completely unaltered:

I bought both cameras that I use since my first photograph at clearance sales, and both under $179.  Off clearance, the most expensive would have been $349.  Up to the time of this writing,  have not used additional lenses or filters.  My cameras are typical point-and-shoot models.

You can see some of my photography on my webpage:

http://www.MichaelJKellerPhotography.com

or click on the large floral picture at the bottom of this blog.  Not all of my photography is floral content.  The picture is just somewhat representative of my other photography.

Samples of my photography can also be seen on my Facebook page by searching the email address:

MJKeller568@aol.com

Most importantly:  What are you photographing?

If you go on a family vacation, by all means, please photograph your family and friends standing in front of Mount Rushmore, the Statue of Liberty, or Niagara Falls, for example - then make them move out of the shot, and take several pictures without them!  Check my photography to see how man pictures of humans I have in my files. Other than **myself**, which is by far my favorite subject :),  I SELDOM take pictures of humans.  Taking pictures of people, in itself, is an art in it's own right.  There is a lot of knowledge out there on that type of photography, but you won't find much of it in this article.

Second in the line of importance is: 

Remember that once you click that button, and take a photograph, the picture that you have just taken has to speak volumes for *itself*.

Have you ever gotten home after an outing with your camera, and reviewed the pictures a couple days later?  I bet you have seen several photos in that collection that made you stop and ask, "Why did I take that picture?"  Or....  "Even thought the lighting, etc, is correct, and it's not a bad picture, the view isn't as nice as I thought it would be!"  Or worse yet, after a major event, "Who is this person, and why did I take their picture?"

The reason that you are deleting all those pictures that you really don't want to keep, or you are posting bad pictures to websites is that when you snapped that picture, you were trying to capture a "moment" instead of a "picture".  I have to take great issue with the film company that used the slogan "We are here to help capture the moments of your lives.".  That isn't necessarily the truth, for reasons that will soon become apparent.

When you are standing in a large flower Garden, for example, and you snap a broad general picture, you were not aware that you were actually trying to capture the warm sunshine on your cheek, the smell of the air after a heavy rain, a whiff of the wisteria growing on the fence behind you, and the birds singing in the trees.  At the time of this writing, there is no technology available that will allow you to convey the "moment" you were experiencing with all your senses.  While I will practically kill myself trying to get you to experience those moments, I will have to sadly admit that it is impossible to capture them with either a video or still camera.  With this consideration, we have come to the conclusion that the picture you take has to speak volumes for itself.  The subject and how it is captured becomes the most important aspect of your photography. 

Your viewers will never be able to feel the same wind on their cheek, that beam of much-needed sunlight on you felt on your shoulder, they will never hear that robin announce it is spring, nor will they ever share in smelling that beautiful Iris that you are trying to permanently capture.  Your photograph has to do all the work by itself. When I am asked to review and critique other people's photography, I notice that 99% of the scenes they capture probably had some long-lost "moments" attached, and in the end, the photograph was too weak to stand on its own. 

Even though Mark is still WAY TOO OFTEN attempted to take pictures that he will later regret ("Moment pictures", as we call them), he will occasionally start to  aim the lens of a camera at a view...pause for a moment.... then put down the camera and walk away.  Knowing very well, but wanting a response in any case, I will ask him, "Why didn't you get that shot?"  He will answer me, "It was a 'moment', instead of a picture!"  There you have it, folks!  You CAN teach an old dog new tricks!  :)

The moral of that saga: Make sure your photos can stand for themselves. You want to capture a photograph, not a moment!

Using the flash, and other settings on your camera:

I find the use of the flash from a point-and-shoot camera, for the lack of a better expression, rather rude, or minimally - cold and harsh.  I can't say that I have never used a flash, but out of thousands of pictures taken, I can count on my hands the times I have used a flash.  As a rule, I would apply the same philosophy to most general overhead lighting in any building.

The flash that comes with any point-and-shoot camera will cause harsh shadows in your photograph, and overhead lighting removes the tones in picture that help create mood.

I would strongly encourage you to experiment with the "Manual" settings that are on your camera: Shutter speed, aperture and film sensitivity (ISO), even though you aren't technically using 'film'.  If you choose to use any of these settings, and deviate from the "smart / automatic" feature of your camera, you will need to use a tripod.  Buying a tripod is much like buyinga camera:  You can get good, cheap cameras, and you can get good, cheap tripods.  I bought one of my 3 tripods at a retail store, and I picked up one of my other tripods at a thrift store, and the other at an estate sale.  If you want to be absolutely certain that your camera will fit the tripod, you should buy the same brand of tripod as your camera.  Generally, however, if you have the piece that screws into the bottom of your camera from one tripod, as in my case, it might work with other brands of tripods.

Why do you need a tripod?  It isn't solely so you can look like a professional photographer.  If you change **any** of the manual settings of your camera, you will get some horrible blur or distortion if a tripod is not used.  Photography is next to impossible without a tripod if you change aperture, shutter speed or film / ISO sensitivity.  In addition, you can take pictures in darker settings WITHOUT the use of a flash, allowing your picture to appear natural instead of being washed out.  You can spend anywhere from a couple dollars to hundreds of dollars for a tripod.  My most expensive tripod was $24, my least expensive was $4 at an estate sale.

If you experiment with the manual settings on a camera, it becomes a much more versatile machine.  You should, however, 'remember what you did', and the environment you were in to get those results, so you can repeat them again when the opportunity arises. If you randomly change your camera's settings, and you get lucky and take a good picture with those settings, you won the battle, but you didn't win the war.  Kind of a "give a man a fish, and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime type deal!  If you jot down, or remember the conditions that you used those settings, you can repeat them later with the same results, thus getting better use of your camera.  

About altering (manipulating) your photographs:

While I seldom alter my photography, on occasion I find a tweak here or there if not absolutely necessary, an interesting or fun addition to the photograph.

After changing whatever it is in the photograph that I want to change, I *always* save the file under another name, preserving the original, untouched photograph as a separate file.

Many people use Photoshop.  I will not publicly down this software. It definitely has a designated purpose.  You do have other choices, however - and they are absolutely free.  I use Picasa 3, which is free no-strings attached software:

http://picasa.google.com/

The following photograph was altered using Picasa:

Picasa not only helps you keep your files organized, but it offers:

* many photo altering features, such as red eye removal, adding "glow", retouching (got somebody in the background that you want to be removed from your photo?)

* Adding soft glow to a picture

* some better printing capabilities than my other software offers.

The other software that I find invaluable, yet absolutely free is GIMP.

Yes, it's called GIMP - Graphical Image Manipulation Program.

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

(or Google "GIMP" for other download sites)

The following photograph was created using GIMP.  It consists of a sunrise from my front yard, and the hand that I photographed from a statue in a local cemetery, combined to get:

About archiving your digital files (photos or otherwise):

** DO NOT keep your photographs on the memory card that you have in your camera, or on a device such as a memory stick or a USB drive**  Those things are easily lost, or if they are not lost, at some point, they will die, and take your fine photographs with them! **

It is an unfortunate fact that many people are lulled into the false security of believing that a computer's hard drive is a permanent storage device.  At some point in the future, every hard drive that is manufactured by today's standards **WILL** fail.  That is a given fact.  With normal use, since I purchased my first computer in 1992, I have had probably 20 hard drives crash, taking EVERYTHING with it.  Even though I am fortunate enough to have permanent copies of most of my photographs, there are several great shots that I can never duplicate that I have lost, and that I will never recover due to hard drive crashes.

Mass storage tip #1:

Every few months, but not as often as I should, I use cheap recordable CDs from Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, Walmart / Target, etc, to burn photos that I really want to keep. I label the CDs with a general label (Photo CD #1, for example), and I will often use Picasa 3, which is a free downloadable photo manipulation program to print off a page of 'tumbnail' photos.  I fold up this page, and put it inside the CD jacket, so that some time in the future, when I have long since forgotten what photos I put on that CD, I can take out that little cheat sheet and look at the thumb nail photos to remind me of what photos are actually on that particular CD.

Tip #2 for mass, semi-permanent storage:

In addition, I have also purchased a fairly inexpensive mass storage device from Best Buy (an external hard drive). In the past, if I wasn't accessing this hard drive, they had a button on the front to completely turn them off.  While it is entirely possible, yet not recommended, many people (including myself) would use these drives as just an alternative to your ordinary hard drive.  They would store and run games and other programs from them, when their initial intended purpose was solely for storage.

  The latest generation of these hard drives do not have an on / off button.  When the computer is on, they are on - all the time.  That doesn't stick with me that well, if you know what I mean.  I am of the persuasion that I should 'turn it off if I'm not using it, to preserve and extend the life of the device."  I still have my original MP3 player that is 5 yrs. old, and I use it every day.  Mark, on the other hand, has gone through four MP3 players, and I doubt that the 4 MP3 players combined have had a total of 3 hours playing time on them!

Anywho, even though I accessed this new external hard drive only to store photos (less than 10 times, I would say), after about a year, it crashed with no hope of recovery.  I took it back to Best Buy for them to test it.  I was thinking that the power source was faulty. They told me that the problem was, indeed, with the hard drive, and not the power pack.  I knew that the hard drive had a 6 year warranty.  I sent it back to the manufacture for a replacement, and I received the replacement in less than a week.

Now, I have the external hard drive completely disconnected from the computer and it's power source unplugged from the wall - completely powered down.  Every 3 or 4 months (or after an important photo shoot), I will plug it back into my computer to transfer photos and other documents that I want to keep. After the transfer, it gets unplugged again.

Tip #4)

If you have photos that you REALLY want to keep, print them out on a stable photo paper and archive them in an acid-free photo album or better yet, frame them.  I have far too many photos to print out, but I have printed the ones that I consider the most valuable to me.

Happy shooting....

- Michael

Is it a bad thing if a mall Santa Claus flips me off?

Is it a bad thing if a mall Santa Claus flips me off? 

Yesterday, I had my facial hair in fine form, and I passed a Mall Santa (South County Mall, St. Louis) who just left his throne to take a break.   He was walking quickly to get through the crowd, attempting to disappear into some out-of-sight break room. 

I said to him, "Hey - I have to bleach my hair twice to get that color! (snow white!)"  I wasn't aware of it at the moment, but I was unintentionally insulting his age, even though he probably wasn't much older than myself.  He laughed, gently nudged my arm with his elbow and said, "Hey!", (as if to say, "How dare you!" and took a couple steps further down the mall.  He turned around and looked at me and said, in reference to my hair bleaching comment, "I do, too, but I only have to bleach ONCE!", and he put one finger up, to illustrate "1" to me - but it wasn't his pointer finger that went up in the air!  We both had a hearty laugh, and both Santa Claus' - him and myself - continued on our separate ways.

- Michael

Useless Trivia #489B, St. Louis Trivia and Christmas in a New York State of mind!

For me, the country kid inside me gives way to the big city boy that I knew I was, and I can't think of Christmas without imagining the Radio City Rockettes doing their annual Christmas shows.  While I am in a New York State of mind, I also mentally tour the Lord & Taylor store to see the massive Wanamaker pipe organ.  I am featuring both in this blog, so if large, powerful musical machines aren't your cup of tea, scroll past to the Rockettes!

For those of you who are uninitiated to the world of massive keyboard instruments, the Wanamaker pipe organ is often argued to be the largest pipe (theatre) organ in the world.  It is nothing short of massive, and will leave any organ enthusiast in tears! 

Trivia #1) What was the original purpose of this huge pipe organ?   Why would anyone want such a thing?
Answer:  It was originally made for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Lous!

Some general Wanamaker pipe organ information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanamaker_organ

An organ performance at Wanamaker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzNEYcVIZGg&fmt=18

A CHRISTMAS performance on the Wanamaker organ:
 (the organ starts playing "O Christmas Tree" at 0:36 in the video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UExLRsZUfOs

Another point of view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjRN8HqyRJg&feature=related

Lastly, Trivia Question #2) Where did the Radio City Rockettes original hail from?
Answer:  St. Louis, MO, of course!  St. Louis produced the largest pipe organ in the world, as well as one of the most famous dance teams.

General Rocketts info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rockettes

The Dance of The Wooden Soldiers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK_wZNFlBtI&feature=related

General commercial featuring the Rockettes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EZdYY7TfD0&feature=related

The Famous, and hideously synchronized Santa Claus dance w/ bell choir:
(these are the girls dressed like Santas - they are not men, but they are convincing!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWtvFlyvh-o&feature=related

- Michael

Turning Over A New Leaf

Many people want to make a change in their lives, but they are completely unwilling to do anything different than they were doing previously.

There are several factors that must be forefront in your mind before a change is made:

1) We can't change what we don't acknowledge.
You can't change what you simply don't accept and recognize.

2) Life rewards action, not inaction.
You will get something in return if you choose to do something about it!
I am known for my lack of patience.  I am also known for my incredible perseverance.   I am not patient.  Patience is for someone who wants to sit around and wait for something to happen. Perseverance means you are doing something to get the job done. No lazy person ever had great skills or talents.  People work HARD for these things, there are no exceptions to that rule!

3) We are responsible for our behaviors, including our thoughts.
Your thoughts are behaviors.  If somebody told you that "you will never amount to anything", or "You can't do that", if you believe it, you will become exactly what they expect you to. Most people believe that your parents 'want only the best for you'.  I can tell you first hand that this is not the truth.  Jealousy and insecurity are ugly things.  If I stopped doing the things that I do so well because my mother laughed at me, poked fun at me, or purposely put me down when I attempted them, at this very moment, I would be sitting in an armchair, blankly staring at a TV.  Instead, I am an advanced level knitter, when my body will allow it, I am a cross country touring cyclist, and in two years, I have taught myself to read music at a 5 year level without professional lessons.

4) (Related to #3) "Human nature is a poor excuse for bad behavior."
Please see #3.  We are in conscious control of our behaviors, including our thoughts. No excuse for doing otherwise.

5) You have to name it to claim it.
Do you know how many people have told me, "I want to be happy!"  I ask them, "What would make you happy?"  They tell me: "A tall man (woman, etc), a rich husband / wife, a fast car, a big house.
I ask them, "How will these things make you happy?"  They tell me, "They make me feel wanted, attractive, secure, etc."  I tell them, "You can feel wanted, content, happy, secure, etc, WITHOUT those things."

6) Either you get it, or you don't.
You have to understand what is going on around you.  The proverbial "Ostrich with his head stuck in the sand" is putting himself more at risk than he is helping himself.
Being naive or gullible is dangerous. If you aren't protecting your goodies, so to speak, the world will be dividing up your cookies as you sit on the curb of life, crying with your face in your hands.
The moral of #6);  Whoever said, "What you don't know can't hurt / kill you" is the person you want to keep an eye on.  They are the ones that will do just that!  They want an easy target, and don't want you to see it coming! 

The moral is mini-saga is that you can, indeed, turn over a new leaf.  You can make any change in your life that you can imagine - but you have to know what you want, how to get it, and be energetic enough to work hard to achieve it and maintain it! 

Life is managed, not cured.  It is a constant work in progress.  If you drop the ball, you will not be pleased with the outcome.

- Michael

Sing, "These Are A Few of My Favorite....LINKS?"

Sing, "These are a few of my favorite ... links?"

Being intelligent is not knowing all the answers.  Being intelligent is knowing how to find all the answers!  It is all about resources, and having some ability to retain what you have learned.  Both take a little work and a little time and energy.  The phrase, "Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day.  Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime" certainly applies.

S E A R C H      E N G I N E S

Everybody knows how to "Google it", but there are other options available.

www.bing.com is my all-purpose favorite search engine - if for no other reason, the fantastic photography featured on the home page changes every day. There is an arrow button at the bottom of the home page that can be used to scroll through the past photographs from previous days.

Even though I have had a few years of Spanish, this page is useful for translating everything from simple phrases to complete web pages from German, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Greek, Portugese, Italian, Dutch and French into English (and from any one of these languages to the other!).  Many people in the English speaking world are completely unaware that there are websites from all around the world, and in many different languages that are more helpful than a webpage in English.  While it is true that translation software is never word-for-word perfect in it's translation, much of this information is valuable, this web site takes translation to a new level, making every attempt to use correct grammar and form that is unique to eacn individual language. 
  (http://translate.google.com/)
 
Other search engines might include:
www.DogPile.com (yes, that is correct!)
and

www.webcrawler.com

These 2 sites are inclusive search engines that search multiple search sites at the same time, and might return more webpages relating to your search than any one site might be capable of returning.

WIKIPEDIA.ORG
The modern day replacement for an encyclopedia set is www.Wikipedia.org .
The difference between this website and a set of encyclopedias is that a set of printed encyclopedias is outdated by **2** years before it goes to print.  If yo go to Wikipedia.org, for example, the site it updated within minutes after a famous person dies, a new president is sworn in, for example.  It is a live and up-to-date valuable resource for information.  I can't remember when a day has gone by in my life that I have not used this site, and many times each day.  You can find ANYTHING about ANYTHING - from plants, animals, music and movie stars, any famous person, any ordinary substance - ANYTHING!


W E A T H E R

THE WEATHER CHANNEL

www.theweatherchannel.com

This site is invaluable when planning an adventure that is outdoors.
Just type in your city or zip code for current local radar, hour-by-hour, daily or 10-day forecasts.

www.wunderground.com

This weather website offers the same information as The Weather Channel website, with the addition of current wind speed, humidity, allergy information, etc.

I use these 2 weather pages interchangeably, depending on my needs.


YOUTUBE.COM

www.youtube.com

I have uploaded 38 videos of my own (search "Tattookub"), and my lowly little videos of me playing my keyboard instruments (Hammond B3, etc), and my parrot, Conrad, have received almost 38,000 views.
It was Youtube.com that taught me how to knit, and many more things that I have learned.  You can watch entire episodes of many sitcoms and movies, including The Golden Girls, and many more.

MAPQUEST.COM

www.mapquest.com

A brief segway:
I have already blogged about the benefits of owning an inexpensive hand-held GPS.  Unless you live in a tiny town, and NEVER leave the area (which is a sad fact, in itself!), there is absolutely no excuse to NOT own a GPS. Considering the fact that once an initial purchase is made, their use is absolutely **free** forever.  They require no monthly data packages, etc, and to use them, you simply get them out of the box, plug them into the receptacle in your car, type in the address (or the name of the store, etc), that is your destination, and press GO.  THAT IS ALL THERE IS TO IT!  Hand-held GPS devices have a dash mount that encourage hands-free operation, and they are Blue Tooth enabled, so that when you are in your car, and your cell phone rings, you can answer it through the GPS, encouraging hands-free cell phone use, as well. But, in the immortal words of Sophia Petrillo from 'The Golden Girls',  "I digress"
.
Back to MAPQUEST.COM:
If I want to know the location of an address / store / event, etc, while I am in my home and sitting at my computer, I use mapquest.com.  When I need to know how to actually get there, and I am in my vehicle, I use my GPS.

GOOGLEMAPS.COM
www.googlemaps.com
Have you ever wanted to take a trip back through your old neighborhood, but ... time, money and distance separates you? Googlemaps.com can get you there!  There are some small towns not covered on this website, but you can go down any street in a large city, and major streets in most small towns.  You might even find your car parked in front of your house, your old school or church - or your work place!  I use this website to travel vicariously.  If you click on 'satellite view", you will see a little orange man in the upper left hand corner of that window.  Click-and-hold on him, and drag him to the street that you want to visit.  Then navigate using either the mouse or the arrow keys to go up and down the streets.  Don't forget to look left, right and up & down - you don't want to miss anything.  The photography is real, and the detail can be amazing. 


WONDERHOWTO.COM

www.wonderhowto.com

I'm sure you've wondered how to do something.  It was this site, along with Youtube, as I previously stated, that taught me how to knit, and take my accordion apart, and get it back together correctly!  You can learn everything from the most useful, to the most unusual and the most silly on this site.  There are insiders tips and tricks to doing virtually anything you ever wanted to do.  The subjects contain, but certainly are not limited to:
Computers and software, music and playing musical instruments, arts and crafts, pranks and jokes - and solving virtualy any problem that is a human can conceive.  This site is well worth adding to your bookmarks, and USING IT!


F I N D I N G
I N F O R M A T I O N   A B O U T  A N Y B O D Y ! ! !

WWW.ANYWHO.COM, WWW.WHITEPAGES.COM and WWW.YELLOWPAGES.COM are all useful in finding personal and business phone numbers and addresses.  Reverse phone number searches are also available.  These sites will tell you if the number is a cell phone number, and if it is, they will require a small fee to tell you who the cell phone number belongs to.  Otherwise, the information is absolutely free.

AREA CODE LOOK-UP:

http://www.bennetyee.org/ucsd-pages/area.html

ZIP CODE LOOK-UP:

http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp

FINDING SOMEONE'S AGE, DATE OF BIRTH, DATE OF DEATH, etc:

www.vitalrec.com (Vital Records)

Once the site loads, DO NOT enter information in the light yellow dialog box over to the right. If you do, you will be prompted to pay $$.  Instead, scroll down past large blue writing that says "Public Records Search" (don't enter anything in this box, either!).  Click on the state in which you which you would like to search.  Actually, the state that you select now doesn't matter, because you have to select it again on the next page.  Once again, a light yellow box pops up to the right. Ignore this one, too, and scroll down.  You should now see text that says, "Illinois State Vital Records Office Information" (or whatever state you chose on the last page).  To the right of the contact information relating to that state's Vital Records office, you will find red text that says,m "Find Lost Family and Friends", then "First Name, State, Last Name" text boxes.  THESE BOXES ARE THE CORRECT BOXES.  Type in the formal name of the person you are looking for, and perferably the state that they might have lived in.  To check your accuracy, this site MIGHT list a few people who are related to this person. If you recognize the person's name, the age is correct, and the family members are correct for the person you are looking for, YOU HAVE FOUND THE RIGHT PERSON! This much information is FREE. If you want more than this information from *this* page, you have to pay for it.

This site only tells you the person's name, current age, and SOME relatives. It doesn't know when someone dies - so if they died a few years ago, and they were in their 90's at the time of death, this site can easily list them as 117 yrs old! I will soon give you a page that does know the date of death, however!

The next page:

www.birthdatabase.com

Information gleamed from this page is absolutely free at all times, and it is self explanitory, but it has limited use.  The only difficulty remains in the fact that if you are searching a very common name, you might have several pages of results to wade through before you find the person you are looking for.

FAMOUS OR NON-FAMOUS (Ordinary people!) GRAVES:

www.FindAGrave.com is the largest up-to-date virtual cemetery on the internet.  This website it not limited to famous people.  Many of my own ancestors have their own pages on this site. This site is absolutely free, and anybody can write a page for their own ancestors, or you can browse millions of famous people's memorials.  You can find everybody from Elvis Presley to Dixie Carter to King Henry VIII - and millions more!  For each person, the website has at least one picture of the individual in his or her prime, and usually a couple pictures, a fairly detailed biography, and an actual photograph of his or her grave, head stone, mausoleum or other memorial.  If the person was cremated, the final disposition of their ashes may be given.  Witht rare exceptions, it is possible to leave a virtual memorial (flowers, a note, etc), if you would like to do so.  I would be embarassed to admit how many hours I have spent on this site, alone.  The information is fascinating.

Pertaining to average people:
The following link is to a particular cemetery in eastern Illinois. This is one of 4 cemeteries in the area that hold the bodies of many of my relatives on the Keller side.  The large memorial featured at the bottom of this page is the "Keller Memorial", and all Kellers (and many more people!) on this page are my own relatives.  Any person can also add their relatives to FindaGrave.com.
(Click on "View All Interments" once the page loads to see the Kellers)

http://tinyurl.com/StewardsonKellers

www.FindADeath.com is more "death hag" related, and I have spent **many** hours reading the dirty details of many famous people's last hours on earth.  Whiel FindAGrave.com is a site that honors modesty and formality of the deceased, FindADeath.com wastes no energy on such matters!  All gorey details are exposed.  The fun starts, for example, when you click on "search" in the left-hand column.  Type in "Ike Turner", for example, then in the search results, click on "The Death of Ike Turner".  For some fascinating reading, scroll down when the page loads.  Throughout these stories, you can click on pictures to see their actual death certificates, pictures of the house they lived / died in (and other pictures!), including pictures of their graves, and a few even feature one last shot - pictures of them in their caskets.  For more gore than the average person can take, type in "Chris Farley".  There is an actual picture of him they way the found his body.  This, folks, is what a cocaine overdose looks like! Write the results of his last day down as, "Things to avoid in my life!"  Incidentally, I was in Chicago, right beside his apt. building while he lay dead in it!

Also very interesting re: famous people's graves (those buried in Los Angeles, at any rate!)
http://www.beneathlosangeles.com/
   
PRIVATELY OWNED 'PROFESSIONAL' CARS (Hearses, etc
There are several private hearse clubs, including "The Dead Sleds", "The Grim Rides", and "Phantom Coaches"

The Grim Rides:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/grimrides?v=photos

The Dead Sleds:

http://tinyurl.com/DeadSledsFB

Through simple searches and the selective use of specific search terms, you can use the internet to find virtually anything.  There are some bits of information here and there that I am trying to find, but I haven't located them yet.  I use a word processor program to keep a list of things that I am 'on the look' for, and if I **ever** have spare time, I pull up that list and look a bit more.  Once in a while, I get lucky and run across information tha I have been seeking for quite some time.

A hint about using search engine (Bing, Altavista, Google, etc):
I am 'old school' in many ways, and searching for information is one of them.  For many searches, I simply type in specific terms that I am searching for.  For other searches, I use this format in the dialogue box:

+"City Museum"+"St. Louis"+"hours"

(as an example).  This forces the search engines to return pages that contain only these specific words, and in this specific order.  If you did not use this format, you will get results that have "Museum Louis St. hours City", and could certainly pertain to a lot of subjects, rather than the City Museum at 16th & Washington, St. Louis, MO.

I will be the first person to admit that the internet can be a pain - a ROYAL PAIN!  I also firmly believe that the internet, cell phones, etc, have encouraged laziness and the 'dumbing down of America", in general.  HOWEVER.... if we take a moment to reflect upon the invention of computers and the internet,  we will find that they were created as a way to **HELP** us do work faster and more efficiently.  They were invented to improve our lives, not to diminish the quality of our lives.  Actually, computers were invented speed up calculations, and the internet's original intention was to improve communication between scientists.  In no way possible could the inventors of the Internet foresee today's internet popularity.

The following link provides the history of the internet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet

I have had several people in my life (those who are trying to make excuses for their laziness!) tell me, "Yeah, but you have had computer classes!"  Only on a minor technicality are they correct.  I had computer classes in both 9th and 9th grade.

The computers I 'trained' on were as follows:
The Commodore 64:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64

Note that any floppy drives were external devices, sound boards and modems (what is a modem, you ask?) DID NOT EXIST at the time, neither did a 'mouse' or any version of Windows.

Q: Can anyone tell me what "POKE 53281,1 POKE 53280,0" does?
A: This is the command used on Commodore 64's to make a black screen with green writing.  Without typing this command immediately after turning on the computer, you see nothing on the screen!

I can still remember many of the "BASIC" programming language commands from high school.

The computer class that I had in 9th grade had this computer:
The Tandy (Radio Shack) TRS-80 Model III:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TRS-80_Model_3_01.jpg

Once again, NO hard drives, NO internet / mouse / Windows, and the only sound that came from either of these computers were beeps form the computer's internal speaker.
Please note the 5.5" VERY floppy drives in these computers.

I remember when I spent $1,025 on 16 MB of memory for my first computer.  My friends thought I was building a freakishly large computer, and that I would never need that much memory.  Can I just share with you that for less than $32, you can buy a memory chip that is thousands or millions of times more powerful than what I spent $1,025 for ?!?

My first sound board was a SoundBlaster 2.0.  I still have it in a box somewhere!  I paid $200 for it, and it lasted me many years, and is still functional.  Even the on-board sound cards that are in the cheapest computers being sold today are hundreds of times more powerful than the one I spent $200 on.

Modems:
My first modem was definitely a large, external box that connected via a thick cable. This was before the invention of a publicly accessible internet, but BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems) were common.  I had to tell my computer a specific private phone number to dial (around the world, sometimes, and almost always long distance!), and the computer would connect to the other distant computer. Some BBSs were free, others were not. What was NOT free, however, was the half hour it took to download one picture file (JPG) that was of horrible quality by today's standards.  A small game, for example, could take overnight to download - at long distance phone rates.  If a call came into my home (no cell phones at that time), my modem would be booted off the phone line, and I would have to start the download all over again!

When AOL arrived on the scene, it was $2.95 an hour.  A $150 / month bill from AOL a month was not uncommon for me.  You can now get AOL for as little as $11.95 / month.

I installed everything into my own computer: modems, printers, mouse, windows (all versions, and I still own them!)

When somebody tries to pull off, "Yeah, but you have had computer classes!", I tell them that the computer classes that I had in my past are comparable to sending a bumper car course for a half an hour one day, and the next day, expect him to be able to drive a high powered dragster, or a modern long-wheelbase Alcohol Altered car.   There is simply no comparison, and one definitely is not preparation for the others.

Just last weekend, I was playing piano in a local art gallery.   When I finished playing, everybody in the gallery stopped looking at the art, and applauded me.  I overheard one lady say, "I wonder where he took lessons from."  I politely answered her, "Ma'am, I have never had formal music lessons."  Her friend attempted to agree with her by trying to brush off my talents and abilities, with a wave of one hand in my direction, she said, "Oh, he must be one of those people that can play any instrument at any time.  You've heard of those people, haven't you?"  I just looked at them dead on while the curator of the Art Gallery looked at the ladies and said, "I am inclined to think his talents are a result of hard work, perseverance and determination."  I looked at the ladies, and in with the same wave of my arm, I first waved at them, then in the direction of the gentleman and said, "Vanna, would you please tell this gentleman what he has won?" - then I walked out the door.

The moral of this story:

Use your resources to your advantage, and hard work never killed many people!

The information gained can only serve to enrich your lives.

- Michael