Art is in the eye of the beholder

So, maybe its the fact that I've had about 3 hours of sleep in the past 24 hours.

Maybe it's the fact that I've been staring at it for 13 of those 24 hours.

It could just be a dumb picture.

It's probably a combination of all of the above; but I'll still say it. Those colorful lines don't constitute Great Art in my humble opinion, and I rather resent those multi-hued lines that I must keep looking at, for they're the only bright thing on the wall.

My First DR Test

Today, this morning, at some ungodly hour, I am writing from New York as I sit here, supporting a disaster recovery test for my company. I must say that I've thoroughly enjoyed the trip, from the flight up here, to picking up my very first rental car, to seeing my spacious hotel room/suite, to eating out every day, to meeting new people who I work with - just have never met.

A rather fun side-note is that I'm actually visiting two states. Staying in New Jersey, working in New York. Deluxe Deluxe!

There are just a few things which have confounded, or, in some way disappointed, me.

1) Though this is a simulated test, which we would perform after some large emergency had occurred, wiping out all kinds of computers. . . .there is not the urgency of a disaster situation that I was perhaps hoping for. People still work on their own set schedule, when something goes wrong, they still pass the buck, and it's rather boring.

2) In conjunction with the above point, I think that perhaps if we came up with a rather great scenario. . . something beyond the generalized and rather broad 'a disaster has occured'; people would be more inspired. If they could envision the amazing set of events that took place which wiped out the computers. . . a tornado of historic proportions, an earthquake that shook a previously geologically stable area, a volcano where previously there were none. . . . .but (and perhaps this is a sign of wisdom that comes with age and experience) I'm starting to believe that not even that would wake up the general corporate America sense of urgency.

Whatever, moving on to:

3) I appear to be in the completely wrong part of the state to have a sighting of the Jersey Devil. That mythical beast that was supposed to be born in the 1700's out in New Jersey - the 13th child of Mrs. Leeds who said that she'd rather have a child of the devil rather than bear another child to Mr. Leeds (marriage counseling wasn't as en vogue back then, apparently). Thus, the Jersey Devil was born, turned out to be a child of the devil, gobbled up the other Leeds children, flew off into the forest and has been making random appearances throughout the southern part of the state ever since.

But, apparently no random appearances where I'm at. . . thus, a wee bit of disappointment. No point in coming all the way out to New jersey without, at least the HOPE of a sighting.

Ah well, c'est la vie. I suppose another fabulous breakfast, lunch, dinner and comfy bed will dull that pain.

It's a Mysterious Universe

So, during the day at work, I love to fill my head with some fun information. I won't call them facts, because they're not. . .I delve into the world of the paranormal and listen to my boy, Benjamin Grundy dish out all sorts of fabulous information that keeps me highly entertained.

Some highlights that I've thoroughly enjoyed:

1. The Dibbuk box which has cursed every person who owns it, and an interview with the present-day owner who keeps it locked in a university storage area so it won't hurt anyone else.
2. Discussion on how crucial Apollo mission tapes have been 'lost' by NASA, furthering the conspiracy theory (which I believe) that we never landed on the moon.
3. Various Bigfoot sightings/reports. The best one being that Bigfoot are actually inter-dimensional beings/shamans who are here to protect the earth . . .or are controlled by aliens. Hard to say which.
4. The interview with Joshua Shapiro, who has a few ancient crystal skulls (a mystery how they came to be), and they talk to him and tell him things. One, in particular, calls him 'daddy'.
5. Shadow people and alien abductions.
6. Chupacabra - tiny little bloodsucking beasties who live in South America and which only the locals have been able to see. Or seen signs of in their flattened goats and chickens.
7. Hollow earth theory. (Hitler was actually big into this one, and some people believe he escaped into the center of the earth after his scientists discovered the entry point . . .near the North Pole if I recall that one correctly)
8. The Serpo project. A top secret exchange program of twelve US military personnel to Serpo, a planet of Zeta Reticuli, between the years 1965-78. Which, some people believe is actually a disinformation project more than anything that covered up the original exchange project. Read that again if you don't understand.
9. Multi-dimensions/Parallel universes.
10. Reptilian entities and their dwellings just under the crust of the Earth. Alleged interviews with them, and stories about them. (they're the evolutionary equivilant of us, but they come from dinosaurs, not monkeys)

See?! How can one possibly stay bored in a cube with all this stuff just pouring into your brain!?

Yes, I listen to a number of other podcasts; sermons, skeptic magazine's podcast, podcasts about money, all that. . . but this one is by far the most entertaining.

As that's rather preoccupying my brain today, that's what you get as a blog. :)

Too much of a good thing. . . .

Is a bad thing.

After much running - outside, and inside. Short distances and long distances. I've had sore muscles and weight gain all in an attempt to be fit. . .

And now, ladies and gentleman, the final insult to injury. I have a stress fracture on my foot, and can no longer run. How, you ask, does one get a stress fracture? From running too much after living a sedentary lifestyle.

The true irony is that I nearly jeopordized the very trip I was training for. But I have exactly 8 weeks to heal before the trip and the doc sees no problems with that. I can continue training on the bicycle.

So though it's severely derailed my last week and a half of exercising - I'll be back on the wagon, (or bike as it were) tomorrow to try again.

Flat Lawning

The snow has finally melted off of our Colorado lawn, it's been about 2 and a half months since we've seen it. While it's good to see our lawn again. . . it's not very attractive as it's trying to recover after all the weight that's been on it. One may, in fact, call it very, very flat.

Which is driving Greg nuts as we had the nicest lawn by far this past summer and one of his favorite pastimes is to obsess over how to make it look better.

So he proclaimed to me last week that perhaps he would get the lawnmower out of the garage and make a few passes over the flat, dead grass to, (and this is a direct quote) "Fluff it up a little".

I said no, that probably wasn't a great idea.

I almost said it with a straight face too.

The Perfect Crime

This is what I awoke to Saturday morning.

Above is a picture of a badly mangled catnip plant. Dirt all over my counter and my sink (not to mention bits of catnip plant joyously sprinkled all over my kitchen), and there, right next to it - my cat's collar with her name tag perfectly visible. This picture was taken exactly as I found the crime scene. Not sure how her collar came off there - but I suppose catnip does crazy things.

It was the perfect crime. . .

If you really didn't want to mess with guessing about which cat was the perpetrator.

Of my Great Expectations. . .

Today was a panicky sort of day.

I woke up this morning as we all do, and I prepared for work. It’s a rather new job, and though I graduated with a degree in Geography and Environmental Studies. . .I’ve managed to work for an oil company and now a defense contractor in my short, rather ironic, professional life. I don’t like this job any more than the last, and am gritting my teeth working here so I can get my masters paid for.

This morning, however, was not a morning full of reason as I realized just how little my job did to make a difference in the world and how much I hated sitting in a cube. I looked at Greg a bit wild-eyed and suggested that perhaps I could join the Army, and train to become a medic, so I could then go to school a while longer while I was out to become a doctor, and THEN after starting a family practice, I could join Doctors without Borders and really make a difference in third-world countries.

He, of course, calmly listened to everything I said and stated if that’s what I wanted to do – he would be OK with it, but today we needed to get to work and if I could please get in the car now…

*sigh*

And then I realized while I’m sitting here at my cube staring at my pink walls and watching silly putty droop off of the side of my computer monitor that I could really go help any of those causes right now, but the courage required to walk away from a steady, good-paying job for something that is emotionally more rewarding and financially foolish… is more than I have.

To a lesser extent I’m too attached to money ( or rather, what it can provide) to just give away quantities (large or small) to these causes…

Heck, I’m not even willing to give up a few hours a week to volunteer in my community…

I suppose my life would be a bit easier if it weren’t so full of contradictions.