New Friend....Not

It is a good thing that I am not the one in the family that hates spiders because this dude decided to take a little cruise out from the side of my desk while I was here on the computer earlier and at first I just saw it out of the side of my vision and thought it was our cat...then I remembered that she was outside so I looked to see and he was just hanging out next to the office trash can.

Of course, I can't let something that big crawl around in my house while I am sleeping so I had to get the Raid out and kill it but at least it didn't give me the heebie jeebies like it would have someone else I know.

Anyhow, this guy had a pretty decent wingspan so I tried to spread him out a bit after he was dead and put the thumbtack in there for perspective. He was easily 3 inches from leg tip to leg tip if not a bit bigger than that. This is the second big one like this I have seen in or near the house this week....must be spider season again.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Family Reunion

Flashback

Okay, I know this is a late post but I was in another country without Internet access when I found out about Michael Jackson's death. I was getting ready to hit the hotel gym and just turned on the BBC news for a second when I saw the "breaking news" story. At first, I thought it had to be a joke...I guess I didn't realize he was in bad health at all and I found it so hard to believe he was actually dead.

Anyhow, I am not a celebrity kind of person...yes, I have artists or actors that I like but I don't go all crazy over them and I don't feel like they are a member of my family when they die. So while I was completely shocked to hear of his death, and I did shed a tear, it wasn't so much for him or the loss of his talent on the planet as it was for more selfish reasons.

As my mom pointed out in her post Michael was a bid deal in my house when I was in junior high school. He was one of the first artists that I found on my own (most of my music interests up to that point were influenced by my parent's great taste). At the time, I didn't know his past, all I knew was that this great album came out with this really cute guy on it and the music made me want to dance. I grew up in a small town and we were a bit behind on trends but I did get the "Top 40" on the weekends and we had just gotten cable so I was glued to MTV. I remember when the Thriller video came out and it was such a huge deal. I "loved" Michael Jackson and did wear a single white glove at my junior high graduation (I wish I had the picture here with me to post but it is in storage). I learned to moon walk and taught my dad how to as well during that year of MJ. I loved all the songs on that album and I have it on CD now.

I stopped listening to MJ after the Bad album as my tastes changed but whenever I hear a song from the Thriller album, it takes me back to that year. It reminds me of being in between being a kid and being a grown up and not really being aware of anything outside my little world of school, friends and family. So I guess when I saw that he was dead, I was sad for his family and the loss of his talent for those generations that won't get to know how great of an artist he was, but I was a little sad for the loss of the icon of my preteen years and how much his music influenced my life and brings back those memories for me.

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Ocean

Typhoon Linfa

This may be the only day we can call it that...right now it is at Typhoon Category 1 but it is not forecasted to stay that way...we will definitely get some weather from it but mostly just more rain....

Today the sun is actually out and so is the humidity...so all that complaining everyone has been doing about the rain will be about how hot and humid it is today...haha. But we'll be back to rain probably within a few days.

Hope all this is not going to affect our attempt to fly out on a long weekend vacation next week...

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Recycling

TS Linfa

Our first storm of the official season...isn't typhoon strength yet but might get there if conditions allow. We have had a few weeks of rain here (which is great for the area but not so great for outdoorsy fun). This storm is coming up near the tailend of that so we are looking at some more rain even if it doesn't hit typhoon strength.

We'll see if it turns, or pittles out before it gets near us....this second picture is from the Weather Underground and they only have it forcasted through Sunday with Taiwan as its target...we'll see how things progress.

In the meantime, I have been enjoying the thunderstorms but if we could get a hold on the rain for the evening time so we can enjoy the Salsa festival, it would be great!!!

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Family Reunion

Why It Is Hard

My Mom just emailed me and my sister that our Grandfather is having problems. It is to be expected that as a person gets older there are various things that crop up but when you live far from home, it is hard to hear and imagine because everyone pretty much freezes (in your mind) at the time you left.

We have not lived in the same town with the majority of our family since we have been married...work and school just wouldn't allow it, but we were able to stay on the West Coast for a long time (which is where most of our family lives) so that was okay...we were only a car ride away.

For the last few years though, we have been a plane ride away and right now I am a very long plane ride away...it makes me feel terrible because I am not there, and I feel disconnected from my family.

I am hoping that the news we got is "worse case scenario" and things are not as bad as it sounds but I guess I need to prepare myself for the worse. I HATE that I am not there (although I don't know how much I would be able to help). I know it is hard on my Grandma to see him get older so much faster than he was before.

He will be 98 in September this year. I hope he knows I love him very much even from this distance.

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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Lights Out

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | North Korea in plutonium threat

Is this guy just stupid? Does he not see that his little bit of power over his unfortunate country could be gone in a flash if he doesn't start to deflate his ego a bit? I feel sorry for the North Koreans having to deal with this guy and any of his relations.

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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Weight Loss

Darkness

Okay, it is so dark in my house right now that I need to turn lights on even though it is 9am...this is because we are in the midst of several days of thunderstorms. I love the storms...don't get me wrong but the waves of clouds do have me turning lights on and off periodically....haha.

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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Father's Day Trials and Tribulations

Elderly gunman kills guard at Holocaust Museum - Yahoo! News

Good grief...human beings never cease to astonish me...and in this case it is not a good thing. How do we even get crazies like this in the gene pool?

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2 Years Ago on In My Words...Recycling

15 Books

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends came up with (I'll tag people once this goes to Facebook from Blogger).

1. Hitchhiker's Guide the Galaxy Trilogy - Douglas Adams Discovered these in high school and immediately fell in love with his humor and way of thinking...helped me to start thinking outside the box and fueled my desire to write myself.

2. Last Chance to See - Douglas Adams
Read this one after college and it grabbed me from the start. His humor and horror at the way humans treat the world and the other beings in it helped me to see how much we need to change our ways.

3. Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak
This book just sticks in my brain from childhood...I think it was one of the first times I realized you can get a bit scared by a book.

4. Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
This book helped me to visualize and express all the things I already knew about the world and just hadn't be able to put into words or pictures. It changed my life and I highly recommend it to anyone.

5. The Shining - Stephen King
I am a huge Stephen King fan, have been since jr high, and this book will always hold a place in my mind because it was really the first full novel I read of his and it scared me to death.

6. The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
Was turned onto this series in 3rd grade and loved everyone one of them. Own them and read them over and over again.

7. The Griffin and Sabine Series - Nick Bantock
Discovered these books the night before heading to Japan the first time and they started me down a postcard road that I have not returned from, thankfully.

8. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
Read this in highschool and just felt like the author knew what was in my heart.

9. A Wrinkle In Time - Madeline L'Engle
Had this book read to me in 4th grade by Ms Capp and couldn't stop until I read the entire series...I think it inspired the science side of me as well.

10. Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Read this book a few years ago and decided that one person can make a difference.

11. Contact - Carl Sagan
Another one that inspired me to look at the world differently and also pushed me towards science.

12. Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein
Read this in jr high, I believe, and fell in love with his version of the world.

13. Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume
My favorite young adult author, read everything she wrote and really related to the characters at a time when all girls are feeling very awkward.

14. The Lorax - Dr. Seuss
My first inkling of environmentalism...I was so saddened by the destruction of the land and trees.

15. The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams
Finished after Douglas Adams died, but has some great insight to his life and beliefs, and made me think outside the box once again.

So there you go, they aren't all the deepest books but they all affected who I am today and the interests I have in science, the environment, volunteerism, and in writing.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Final Draft