Well, not exactly — but a family vacation (and a petition by the family members who comprise it that I unplug a while) has slowed our regular programming cycle. Che Underground: The Blog has a wealth of archival treasures and challenging conversations waiting in the wings, but it may be a day or two before I can get the gears turning again.
What are you up to this summer?
… Which in itself suggests a topic I’d like to hear about! In this networked world of 2009, how do you balance the digital and the analog parts of your lives? I feel very lucky to share the former with all of you (and the latter with many of you), but how do you make time for each?
Are you posting from high atop the Matterhorn (or whatever it is they have at Disneyville these days)?
>>Are you posting from high atop the Matterhorn
Toby: Indeed, waiting on lines for rides is prime time to blog! Not so easy to edit images, but … 🙂
wheeeeeeeee!
Matt, put away the Blackberry and give your family your undivided attention.
Well…here is something I put on FaceBook.
How do we keep up in these mechanical times? How do you send a virtual hug? What do we say when friends are gone? Do we say aloud “How about that?” Or just delete them from the files that now are our lives. Do these pages give my life meaning? I don’t know man. There must be more to life than all of this. I can’t believe that I find myself in this season of life still trying to change the world. Such a fool am I.
heff
That’s odd- I JUST wrote someone about the fact that yes the times changed and became more complicated but so did we- and that it is a challenge to be childlike and youthful and to just shrug off our personal portion of the weight of the world off of our shoulders.
Go throw a newspaper machine through the front windshield of a police car. That always brings my spirits up. 😉
I let my kid cover me with stickers and body crayon drawings before we skip around the neighborhood. Less physical and dramatic than Toby’s. But an option to consider for those trying to avoid Officer Bob’s wrath.
Work/life balance? A wobbly teeter-totter. Constantly exchanging child care and food and errands with other parents. Constantly feeling in debt. Thanking people at the office for scheduling around the school bus and violin lessons. I’ve grown way too fond of how 3:00 a.m. quiet solitude allows undistracted work.
Part of the balance isn’t just doing work and taking care of family, but remembering to check the inevitable whining with gratitude.
There always seems to be one person in my life that really doesn’t like me very much and I have to be around (usually at work, but right now it’s this girl who lives in the same house at me who leaves dirty dishes in the sink and is pretty rude- makes no pretense at liking anyone.) That is always the challenge in my life. I can exist blissfully for a time, but if someone continually is an idiot while I’m trying to be tolerant and graceful, eventually we end up at that juncture in the road where I’m looking at fight or flight.
Back in the day it was so much easier- you just hit and run- end of confrontation. Nowadays there are so many extenuating circumstances to think about, it actually makes me a better person just by my wish to stay on the outside of the department of corrections’ system. But still- sometimes it seems like every day is challenging, then other times I waltz through life unfettered by the chaos and aggression around me.
Life is odd like that- sometimes it just doesn’t make any sense.
>>”Go throw a newspaper machine through the front windshield of a police car.”
Aaaahhh….thanks for that refreshing thought.
Studying music, taking care of baby, working nights, going to school…this busy life does distract from focusing on the self!! Very healthy, and for this busy life there should be gratitude.
Yet…years spent as a beach bum with no responsibilities brought no more or less joy.
“Everything is the same after two weeks” J.P.Sartre
toby toby toby…..
just be nice to lil miss angry and come up behind her and put your chin on her shoulder and whisper to her how much it turns you on when she does the dishes….
i’m thinking they’ll get done….or you get chop-chop.
all life is a risk…go for it!
love the one you’re with.
: )
I’m not really into angry unfriendly girls. Plus that might make her husband uncomfortable (who is, oddly enough, a really decent guy.)
there’s always a catch, eh?.
sounds like some room-mates of mine….she’s always angry…he’s generally decent and civil….they both hate to clean though.
you really have to beg them and explain how much you kinda dig a
somewhat clean house.
now the other lady is a cleaning-monster…..she let’s you know when she’s cleaning. cleaning requires a significant amount of commotion, ya know?
oh those two hate each other.
i can’t say i enjoy their usually-verbal slugfests but i do gotta laugh sometimes (never where they can hear me of course).
such gentle creatures!
Ahhh- the good ones are great- the ones I like, I love.
What about the bad ones??
so whaddaya sayin? don’t book the first flight available to seriously hook-up?
Hawaii? That’s pretty much a historical fact. Don’t bring the girlfriend if you’re here for some serious surf, but for gods sake don’t come to Hawaii expecting to “hook-up” (unless you’re college age, then there are all kinds of prospects- lotsa college kids here- just no single women around our ages. Or at least none who have taken care of themselves- all kinds of chronics and mental cases that are visibly a little shook up.)
There are exceptions- Waikiki is a free for all, but it’s mostly corn fed tourists and people from Tokyo (I speak a little Japanese- enough to get by- so that’s kind of a cool avenue, really- but I hate Waikiki- seriously- the Las Vegas of Polynesia.) I suppose if you’re somebody famous or have a fat wad of cash you could probably find some superficial love. But all in all, not a lot of prospects out in the middle of the Pacific.
And don’t get me wrong- There are some absolutely beautiful girls here. The hapa (Japanese and whatever mix- sometimes people say that about any asian and Haole mix) lends itself to athletic. beautiful features. But most of them are taken or way young, and I have to say- maybe it’s something in the water over here, but Oahu people are just not the friendliest people I’ve run across in the islands. Standoffish and cold, unreceptive to anyone saying hello or good morning- I have run across some real social morons in my stay here. The people who have treated me the best (as has been true all of my years in the islands) has been the Polynesiens. Hands down, the nicest people ever- just fantastic- if you treat them well they treat you better. (I know there are a few bad apples in every bunch- but really- the local Japanese have practically all been rude to me- serious- must be an Oahu thing.)
For your entertainment, a blog I have with a little fun I had on Craigslist:
http://misunderstandingjesus.blogspot.com/
i was actually thinking of something a little more serious.
oh well……
any idea what cleveland’s like?
Ha ha >>”just no single women around our ages. Or at least none who have taken care of themselves- all kinds of chronics and mental cases that are visibly a little shook up.)
Not a great endorsement!!
misunderstandingjesus -- I LOVE the girl giving the finger!!
Providence is a great city for beautiful women.
i was able to get through half that blog….much of which was brilliant.
you definitely have either twice as much energy as me, or time…..or both.
but wheoever wrote this almost made me cry:
Out on a Limb
I went way out on a limb for you
and for a while it was the sweetest thing
you sitting out there with me, too.
I guess I can see
how dreaming that big could scare you
pretty soon I found myself
out there on that limb all alone.
It was a hell of a lot sweeter
out there holding hands with you
After you left I got a chance to look around
pretty soon I noticed it’s a long way down.
Some of the hardest lessons in life
are the most painful.
All in all I’d have to guess
that just between you and I
Well- I’m the way better tree climber.
Wow! I go to the Magic Kingdom for the day, and everybody’s talking about … women!
Carry on.
i really love that toby was able to locate and post a picture of alan.
he has more than issues with racism i think.
I make a point of going sans computer, phone, etc… now and again and just walking around the city talking to strangers and pretty girls. Pretty much for the reasons you kind of alluded to. I’m way too plugged-in sometimes- especially for someone who espouses the debilitating nature of cable programming. 😉
Gary H said: “What do we say when friends are gone? Do we say aloud “How about that?” Or just delete them from the files that now are our lives.”
When my dad died, I was sad but after losing so many people from such an early time in life, I have a little bit of a time remembering how to react to death. For months I listened to an old voicemail from him on my cel phone, asking me to let him know what to get my daughter for her birthday. I listened to it at least once a day, and before I got to the point to where I could forget to do it, the system cleared my old mail, and I was finally a little more sad.
Back to pretty girls
I didn’t post that one- the angry guy sent it to “Misty”.
That picture makes my day. Her face is a perfect blend of defiance and humor. Is she “Misty”?
Love the Erroll Garner song by that name too. Play it every night, in Eb.
You skim. You’re a skimmer, aren’t you?
Misty was that first girl that the one guy pegged as a “K-drama” star- the cute one at the top of the page. All the rest of the pictures were contributed by potential boyfriends, which amused me to no end. I wish the cop had sent in a pic- that would have been classic. I’d spend a whole weekend riding my bike around Honolulu if I could find the cop that answered that ad, just to tell him Misty said sorry- she’s not into cops. 🙂
I am a skimmer. The cute one at the top of the page?? Soooo cute.
Skimming is not a crime.
It’s 90% makeup, 10% gene makeup. 😉
my days are spent on my feet from 7:30 am til 5pm except for my half-days.
i’m totally unplugged during this time dealing with very real human-beings and very real machines…..namely cars and i mean every sort of car you can think of. i test-drive them, i drive customers, i drive parts, i clean bays and offices and bathrooms and keep the waiting-lounge clean….keep the parking-lot situation organized….open shop-gates and bay-doors until we close.
i did blow up a brand new ford ranger motor 2 weeks ago though.
that’s something you can’t do on your computer.
it’s very much a hands-on deal, that…kinda wished it was a game.
You and I- we’re gonna do just fine. 😉