POTD Day 20 Letter

One of our cousins is in basic training for the local Nat Guard right now.

He had a hip fracture during the beginning of training so after being home for the holidays, he went back to recover and do physical therapy. He is in the Fitness Training Unit until he heals and then he will go back to regular training.

We have been writing back and forth since he has been there since I know being cut off from family and technology is hard and letters and packages can make all the difference in the world. I have sent him one box with some puzzle books and writing supplies, but that was before the holidays.

Right now, I just try to keep the back and forth on the letters going. I got this letter a few days ago and I sent off a postcard today and will get a letter off in a day or so. I am a huge fan of snail mail so it is a lot of fun to have someone to write to.

I took this picture with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash, but macro turned on. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color and light, and to smudge out info for privacy reasons. I then added the fuzzy border.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...The Negative Of Facebook

Reading For Research

Saw this cool article on NPR and decided I wanted to check out these books. I have had a couple of children book ideas for a while and even took a children book writing class last year and thought that these books might be good research material. I immediately added them to my Goodreads "To Read" list and put requests in for them on my library card.

So far 5 of them have come in and today, I went and picked them up. While I was there, I picked up a couple of books that have been made into movies that I want to read before I see the movies.

I plan to read the children's books tomorrow and take notes in my writing notebook. I'll take the books back when the last two come in, and hopefully I might have one or both of the "movie" books done too. I am also in the middle of a couple of books on my Nook so there is no lack of reading material on my plate....LOL.
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My Reading Blog is located at http://mishkabook.blogspot.com if you want to check it out. I need to update it but plan to get on that in the next day or so!!

POTD Day 15 Black And White

I discovered these notebooks in college (read that as "forced to use"), they eventually became something I completely depend. I use them for all sorts of things other than just college composition.

I have one I use for my writing projects, one for my computer builds and settings, several that I have for my journals, another I used for my computer classes, or any other classes I take, one for keeping track of things about the house...etc. I have even an minature one I keep in my golf bag that I keep my golf log in.

They are awesome because they are bound so they don't fall apart like spirals do, they are compact and easy to transport. I get them in lots of colors and different exteriors but I still favor the standard black and white comp books most of all.

I took this  image with my Fuji Finepix f50, no flash, with macro turned on. I edited it in GIMP 2.6 for color and light and then added the fuzzy border.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Just Stuff

Virtual 5K And Overall Catch-up

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the period that I can complete my virtual 5K for this race. I did not officially sign up for this one, but I am participating anyhow and will post a race recap with photos when I am done. I have, once again, not had time to really train for this one....so hopefully, I will get it done a couple of times over the next 11 days and then do one for the books. We'll see how my time pans out.

I have a cousin coming into town this weekend that I haven't seen in at least 15 years if not longer. I am excited to see him and see how life has been treating him.

I am a little bit sore all over from spending about 40 hours over the last week or so working in our yard trying to get it looking okay before the weather gets dry and hot and the ground super hard. The dandylions and I are NOT friends.

I have been able to stay up on my picture taking (even if most of it is of DIY projects) but I am not currently doing any photo projects this year so I haven't been posting much other than to the house blog and some to my FB.

The time has changed and the weather has been terrific which means most inside projects have stalled out, but we are expecting some wind and rain in the next few days I might be able to finish up a few things.

I need to be studying for my computer test, and writing more than I have...thankfully my reading hasn't been too hindered since I still do that most nights before bed. I have another 5K in April (IRL one) and then an MS walk the following week that I am looking forward to, so that helps me to stay in shape, not to mention the hours of yardwork...haha.

Oh and last but not least, I am still on the job hunt....frustrating as it is, it has to be done. I know that at some point, I will get something but in the meantime, frugal is my middle name.
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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Car Crash

Letter To Fox Television

This is a copy of the letter I wrote to the Fox Network today...I wanted them to know that I stopped watching any shows on their network due to their greedy idiocy (not that they care).

To Whom It May Concern:

I have been a loyal Fox customer for many years and I know I am not alone in this when I say how disappointed I am in Fox right now. Not only did you drop the ability for your loyal customers who might not be able to watch a program when it airs, from watching a show online the next day, you are no longer provided as an On Demand option on my cable network. I can only imagine that this comes from greediness on the part of the Fox network.
 

What I don't understand is how this benefits you in any way. The average person can watch any Fox show without even needing to have cable or dish service, for free with commercials (which is where you make your money). If the same user were to watch the program online the next day (as of last year), they would still be watching it for free and they would still see the commercials (so you are still making the same amount). Now, if they happen to miss that particular show, they have to wait 8 days to watch it (which means they can't watch the next show that airs since the shows are 7 days apart so now they are perpetually stuck having to watch online over a week late, over and over), it is still free and they still see the same commercials (so you are still making the same amount). So all you are doing is pissing off your customers, but not really making any extra money from the entire thing (except what you might be making from the 3 companies that have signed on to this new program you have). On top of this, a customer like me that pays for HD cable (a step up or two from standard cable), can't even get any Fox shows On Demand, where I would see the same commercials and you would make the same amount.
 

This makes no sense to me and doesn't get you any extra money. At this point, I have stopped watching all the shows I used to watch faithfully on your network. I pretty much only turn Fox on for sports now since it is not worth my time to try to coordinate online viewing of shows I might not be home to watch. So the result is no extra money for you and now to top it off you are losing customers. Please stop being greedy and just provide great programming like you used to do without making us (your customers) jump through hoops.
 

Thank you for your time.
Former loyal customer,

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Seven Years Ago on In My Words...Explanation Needed

Most Fun On The Internet In A Long Time

I discovered this cool ass site because Jenny, The Bloggess posted about it after much consideration over racism and my sister saw it before I did and shared it with me. This was after she ran my blog (yes, this blog here) through it. So I did the same thing and had a great laugh about it.

Today, I went to Jenny's blog to read her post and the comments there before commenting myself and ran across this awesome comment by David Cutler (commentor number 175) and I thought he said it so well that I needed to repost his words here. He didn't provide a link to a site so I hope that giving him credit for these words by name is enough. This comment was in response to Jenny's inquiry on whether the site linked above or a post about that site would be considered racist.

I find neither the website nor linking to it racist. Calvin Broadus (Snoop Dogg) is a singer, lyricist, writer, actor, and general entertainer. He has also invented his own rather unique brand of slang. Many people are highly entertained by Mr. Broadus. Others are slightly entertained. Still other people find him somewhat annoying, and others find him highly offensive. The EXACT same can be said of Jenny Lawson. The linked website is, I think, a loving homage to Mr. Broadus’s slang, exactly as it claims to be. As a result some will be highly entertained, others less so, and others annoyed or offended by it. As would be true of any homage work to Mr. Broadus or Ms. Lawson.

The only aspect of this that could be considered racially offensive is an assertion that Mr. Broadus represents ANYONE other than himself or those who actively claim him to be their representative. Mr. Broadus does not represent African Americans, any more than Jenny Lawson represents white people. Many people reading this website (myself included) would say Jenny Lawson represents us. Not because of her race, but because of her writing and humor. We identify with her and are entertained by her, and it has nothing to do with the color of her skin. Similarly Mr. Broadus entertains many people and I am certain many identify with him, and presumably they do so for the same reasons I identify with Ms. Lawson. It IS racist to argue that African Americans identify with Mr. Broadus because of the color of their skin, just as it would be racist to argue that I identify with Ms. Lawson because of her skin color. It is not racist to be amused by either of them. It is also not racist to think either one of them are offensive or unfunny. That is a matter of taste.

Personally, I think the site is akin to a humorous translator such as the Pirate Speak on Facebook is....it is meant for humor and not to be cruel and/or degrading. Note too that if you read the page that explains why the creators made the site, you will see that they did so out of fanship of Snoop Dog and nothing else.

I had a ton of fun using the site last night to view other sites....serious sites like Wikipedia and excerpts from serious works of literature, to see how funny they would sound translated. It was hilarious. If you have time, run my site here, http://mishkaop.blogspot.com through the http://gizoogle.net site and see how it translates...and then check out some of your other favorite sites.

NOTE TO THOSE FAINT OF HEART: The translations contain swear words so if you can't handle or don't like to be exposed to swear words even in a humorous setting, it is best that you avoid using Gizoogle at all.
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One Year Ago on In My Words...Brand New Place

Big Fish

They were having a sale over the weekend...and I managed to get three new games, three free games, and filled a punch card which means another free game. I have already played one of them, and plan to make time for more. I have been really bad at time management the last few months and I need to get it together.

I want to see improvement in my body, in my house and in my job situation...and there is nothing stopping me on any of those accounts but me. At the end of the month, I have a short trip to see family in another part of the US and then it is back to the hard core job hunt. The body and house stuff will get tackled even before that. Getting on the plan is the hardest part...once I get going, I am usually pretty good about staying on task.

I did start a new scarf (feeling like I needed some kind of creative outlet) and I am almost done with it. It is going to be cute and I have yarn for a different one as well. I am reading pretty much every day (which is super important to me) via the Nook at night before hitting the hay. I have also been able to do some volunteering on Google, which was being neglected for a bit.

So besides getting on the plan, singing, more writing, geocaching and studying for my computer test are on the list...time management is key.
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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Halloween Decor

Bug From Hell

I haven't posted in a while, mostly due to the fact that I caught a nasty chest cold a few weeks ago and have not been able to function much other than the basics. It turned into bronchitis (which I have never had before) and I have now been coughing for 4 weeks.

Fortunately the antibiotics have knocked out most of it...at this point, the lungs are clearer but the urge to cough when breathing deep is still there. I can't really do anything remotely active without going into a complete coughing spasm. My upper ribs on both sides feel like they are out of place, however I am sure that the muscles are just pulled from the coughing.

I am hoping to be back at normal activities soon, to include exercise!
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Seven Years Ago on In My Words...10 Years Of Mishka

Silent Secretary Project

I haven't posted about this here, but I am working on a project to transcribe my great great grandmother's journals (the ones that I have) onto a blog called A Silent Secretary. I named it this because that is what the diary books she wrote in are called. The blog used to be on Blogger but I had to move it to Wordpress in order to get the dates to work the way I wanted. Anyhow, I try to get a week or so transcribed over each time I work on it so I can get it all up there quickly.

So today, I decided I was going to get at least a week done (I actually ended up doing three weeks). I came to the end of a month and realized that the diary has a little section of info at the beginning of each month that is kind of cool. So I went back and added the little info sections in to each of the months I have completed so far. In the process of this, I realized that there were little mottos and/or quotes at the top of each page, so I went back through all the entries (over 100 so far) and added the little mottos/quotes in.

It took a lot of work but I am pleased with the additions and I hope the readers of the journals are too!! Please check out the beginning of each month for the new info.
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Five Years Ago on In My Words...Lunar Eclipse

Template Change

I decided that my old template was a little bit too hard to read without scrolling up to the light areas (because of the image) and a couple of my fellow bloggers have recently changed to white clean templates and I decided to give it a go...I might change up the header image again, but for now, I think I have something that works for me.

It took a bit of tweaking of gadget sizes and moving things around (since my old template was only two columns and this one is three), but I think I am happy with it. Seems a little "newslettery" but I like it. Of course this means that I am going to be mixing it up on my other blogs as well...they probably won't all end up looking like this one but for the ones that are hard to read, I will moving to something a bit more legible.
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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Tea Is Your Friend

Dusty and Salami Tsunami Blog

I have this blog in my blog roll...I have loved reading his stuff for years...like his title says, he has been blogging since it before it was lame...me too.

Unfortunately, he is hosted on Wordpress (with a custom domain) and for some reason (even though I actually have a Wordpress login and password), Wordpress hates me and I have not been able to comment on any blog hosted by them even if it is on a custom domain for over a year....and I have no way to tell those that I read that I am having this comment problem on their blogs....grrr. I have tried to use Wordpress customer service and this has not helped...their CS is worse than ours at Blogger...even if you do get someone to answer, they don't really read what you are saying and just respond with canned answers that have nothing whatsoever to do with the problem. I have pretty much given up on commenting on any Wordpress blogs at this point.

Today, when I read Dusty's post, it rang true in so many ways for me because of a recent traveling experience that I figured I would comment (forgetting to check who the host of the blog was)...wrote this long comment and then it didn't post...so I am posting it here...and maybe Dusty will see it someday...hehe.

"Thanks Dusty, great post. You had me laughing out loud several times.

I just recently stayed in a Marriot for a IT conference (where all 250+ of us were staying) and not only did I have a room with two huge beds for just me, I also had 8 pillows on each bed. I would move all the pillows over the vacant bed but the two I needed for sleeping each night and then the maid would move them back the next morning.

It didn't matter that I left my towels hanging up, they still replaced them everyday regardless of mine and the tree frog's wishes.

Internet connections in our rooms were 13 dollars a day (and not covered by the conference holders even though the double bed and 16 pillow rooms were), but we had free wireless in the lobby....so guess where most of the 250+ people were everyday....yep, hanging out in the lobby so we could all have free Internet. I would have traded some of my pillows for the ability to log into my email in my pjs...."

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Six Years Ago on In My Words...Epiphany

Another To Do List

I am a list maker...and it is time to make a list. I have been rattling things around in my head and making a list is better than letting that continue.

Computer

Back up both PCs
Wire printer and see if that helps the printing problems
Organize photos
Scan in photos from albums
Order new software and install it on PC
Find screwdriver for external drive and get it tested
Bookmarks
Set up Nook

Work

Get resume on the two sites
Check volunteer site for hours
Check sites for job options and apply
Check craigslist for job options and apply
Print SQL certificate for experience book
Talk to Google travel agent for booking conference
Log some volunteer hours with Google
Set up GooglePlus blog

Household

Yard work
Something to hang laundry on
Something for front windows
Carry-on
Set up mud porch

Writing

Continue on writing book lessons
Work on outline for both books
Read, edit and suggest on Popi's manuscript
Research publishing options
Order new Writer's Market book
Order Take Joy book

Personal

Goodreads setup and organize
Book flight for NE
Journal
Microderm
Cards/letters
Post pic for July photo project
EXERCISE (this will be ongoing so no strike through)
DIET (this will be ongoing so no strike through)
Finish 5 books currently reading
Watch Netflix stuff
Order new Wii game
Clean up Chase's space and store the keepers
HIT GOLF BALLS
Work on baby blanket

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Five Years Ago on In My Words...seems like this is a theme for me...Bogged Down

Classes

I am taking two community education classes for the next 6-8 weeks in addition to my "for credit" circuit training class. These two classes are online and are not for college credit, but are a way for me to get some experience that I hope will help me with the job market and future plans.

One is an SQL class which is the language used to do queries on databases, and while I have some experience with database queries, it has all been in Access, which is much more point and click, and I want to have some specific language experience. I may take the SQL II class after this as well. We get certificates of completion so I feel that this can only be a good thing for my job hunt.

The second one is a Writing for Children class because I have had a couple of ideas for children's books that I would like to try my hand at. I think this class is also going to have some great information for getting into the writing market in general so I am excited to learn. I need to get over to my local library and check into some of the books the teacher has pointed out. I did some market research when I first got these ideas so I have a good foothold to start from.

We are in week two of the classes and I am three assignments behind in both of them. Fortunately, they are both online so I can work on them when I have time and they won't interfere with any work that might come up in the near future. The assignments and quizzes have two weeks windows so I am not "late" on anything yet but I need to get my butt in gear and catch up this week. The next lesson is not posted until Wednesday next week so I have plenty of time to catch up.
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Six Years Ago on In My Words...OCD

Templates and Fonts

I really am enjoying the number of options that Blogger has started to offer its users in templates and now in fonts too. As you can see, I have adjusted the font and template to something different for each of my blogs (even for those you can't see or don't know are mine).

Recently I updated my mom's blog which had an old header I created on it and simpler templates into something that I think reflects her much better. It is more about the writer than it is about decorating it up like it is a Myspace page.

These new templates have inspired me to write more frequently on all of my blogs and that is always a good thing!!

Check them out sometime if you are on a Blogger blog yourself!!

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Six Years Ago on In My Words...Come Back Birds

Day 1: Something You Hate About Yourself

Starting a new blogging task to see if I can get myself jump started into my writing again. I have a ton of stuff going on, but most of it too personal for posting on here. I need to get motivated to write regularly and then the creative juices will start to flow...so on that note, I am going to do this list of 30 topics...don't know that I will get them all done in 30 days but I think it is still a good place to start. I found this list on Poppycede's blog...not sure who she might have gotten it from.

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Something You Hate About Yourself

Honestly I don't really hate anything about myself but I definitely have things I would like to change or that I dislike about my personality. One of those things would be my tendency to over-think things on occasion. Turning off my brain these days is one of my biggest hurdles. I have found that exercising regularly helps me keep my brain clear and focused and definitely helps with the over-thinking issue. Only problem is that sometimes the over-thinking occurs in the middle of the night or early morning when exercising is a bit difficult.

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Five Years Ago on In My Words...My God, It's Full of Stars

10 Years of Mishka (5 Years Later)

I did this same post 5 years ago but figured since it was an anniversary of sorts that I might see how things have updated...you can click on the old version in my link below if you want to check it out.

10 years ago:

I was in between twenty-something and thirty-something.
I was living on the West Coast.
I had two cats, one named Madison, one named Chase, who we had just adopted.
I was getting ready to move to Japan.
I had a network admin certificate under my belt.
I had a pretty good job with easy hours and fun people.
I was playing soccer again pretty regularly.
I was living in the house we bought three years before.
I was spending a lot of time with my family.
I was becoming very skilled on computers.
I was not writing, singing, doing art, or playing music much.
I was too busy a lot of the time to really enjoy things.
I finally paid off my school loans and we were completely out of debt (minus the mortgage).

5 years ago:

I was thirty-something.
I was living in NC.
I was still working on my graduate program.
I had lost Madison in 2004 to old age but still had Chase and she was loving the sun room.
I had my house on the West Coast rented but was not happy with my rental company.
I was writing and reading more.
I was exercising more.
I was skinnier than I had been in a while.
I was missing my friends from Japan and hadn't really made any new ones.
I was playing soccer with two local leagues.
I was investing pretty heavily in our futures.


3 years ago:

I was thirty-something.
I was living in NC but jumping through hoops to come back to Japan.
I had just had a great Christmas trip to Panama, Belize, Costa Rica and Florida.
I had started shaving Chase regularly to keep both of us sane.
I had started looking at selling both the house in NC and the one in WA.
I was playing soccer.
I had just graduated with my master's degree.
I was officially volunteering for Google and getting lots of experience.
I was blogging a lot.
I was being creative again for the first time in a while.

1 Year Ago:

I was still thirty-something, but creeping up real close to forty.
I was living in Japan in a really cool Japanese house three blocks from the beach.
I still had Chase but we had fixed up the backyard so she could be outside part of the day.
I no longer had either home in NC or WA but owned one in OR that was being rented.
I had added two more countries to my list of travel places.
I was spending the majority of my time working for free for several non-profit organizations.
I was still volunteering for Google.
I was only being creative on selective days because my schedule was super tight.
I was not spending enough time enjoying the outdoors, singing or writing.
I was not playing soccer at all (due to lack of participants).

Today:

I am now forty and it is not as bad as I thought.
I am still living in Japan but getting ready to move to Hawaii in the fall.
I just got home from a great trip to Kyoto.
I have been able to see 8 of the Japanese islands so far and hope to get a few more in before we leave.
I am getting all my sh!t together so I can get a job when we move.
I still have Chase but she is getting older too.
I still have the home in OR and thankfully it is still rented.
I have not had any visitors from the US this time around and am looking forward to living a bit closer in the near future.
I am not writing as much as I want to, but am trying to work on that.
I am reading a lot.
I am on an exercise plan to get back to a fitter me as soon as possible.
I am getting ready to celebrate my 18th anniversary this year.
I am still not playing soccer (still no participants).
I am still investing pretty heavily in our futures.
I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to a bunch of my closest friends this summer.
I am looking forward to moving to a new place and having new adventures.
I am looking forward to being able to travel some more in this part of the world.

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5 Years Ago on In My Words...10 Years of Mishka

Kijimuna Attack

It is three in the morning. I am sleeping soundly...in fact more soundly than I usually do when I am in a new place. I hear a tap, tap, tap...I wake up. "What was that?" I think to myself, it must be Jocelyn...but I am not sure if she is tapping on the wall or on the door. I make my way to the door with no glasses, in the dark, in an unfamiliar room. Knowing how nights in her house full of animals can be, I am hoping that she is not just suffering from insomnia and in need of company as I really do want to go back to sleep. As I get close to the door, I forget that there is a step down and I almost kill myself falling towards it.

As I reach the door, I think I better ask to make sure it is Jocelyn at the door...and it is. I open the door, still feeling groggy and incoherent from being in such a deep sleep. She asks me if I am okay...I tell her I am. She looks back towards her room and tells me that something is in her room...a spirit or something. That it has woken her up on the hour for the last three hours. That the first time, it grabbed her hand, the second time it tried to smother her, and the third time it turned her TV to black screen and tried to wrap her up in the blanket so she couldn't breathe or move. I am a bit skeptical and still feeling the effects of my deep sleep so I ask her if she wants to sleep in my room. She says yes.

We walk over to her room and grab her bedding and pillow and drag it all back to my room. We make up the bed for her. She tells me again about what has happened to her now that I am more awake and can actually grasp it. We both lay down on our beds and turn out the light but continue to talk about it and question whether we could have disturbed some kind of spirit during our travels that day. We had been to several historical sites on our tour of the island, specifically a cave that had a shrine in it and was really dark and spooky.

While I have had my own experiences with ghosts/spirits in the past and am a firm believer, I am not sure how to take what has happened to her. I am hoping that it is over and we can both get back to sleep as we have another full day ahead of us. We continue to talk off and on as I get more and more sleepy. I do not realize that it is already past the 4 o'clock hour.

At some point I fall back to sleep. I am having this dream about Jocelyn, where we are in my room and it is now 7:20am and the sun is out, the room bright. I am thinking to myself that the night before must have all been our imaginations, and am about to tell her this when her daughter (Jocelyn doesn't have a daughter), walks into the room. She is about 8 years old, blond hair in a ponytail, and named Brianna. She walks over to Jocelyn's bed and starts talking to her. Jocelyn is playing with her hair and while this is going on, I am thinking to myself, "how did I not know that Jocelyn had a daughter considering how much we hang out?". Just as I have this thought in my dream, I wake up, open my eyes and realize that I was dreaming because the room is still dark.

All of a sudden, I feel these two hands pushing down on my blankets right over my hands and chest. Pushing hard, knocking all the wind out of me. I can't believe how hard the pressure is. I try twice to say Jocelyn's name but I have no air in my lungs and it just comes out as squeaks. I can feel myself not being able to take a breath in. I finally push my hands back from my chest and the pressure is released. I take a huge breath in and then say "oh my gosh". Jocelyn turns over and says, "what?". I tell her, "it just happened to me!!!". I grab my phone and look at the time...it is right at 5am. My heart is pounding...

She gets up and looks outside...the sun is just starting to lighten the sky. We talk for a few minutes but amazingly, I fall back to sleep. Minutes before 6am (which I expect will be the next attack), my phone starts to vibrate like I am getting a call (even though I am not and it is not set to silent). Right after that, Jocelyn's phone lights up like she is getting a call but she is not. Either the power of the spirit is diminishing with the coming of dawn or some other force is trying to wake us up to keep us from being attacked again at 6am. We wait out the top of the hour and then both doze back off until our alarms go off to get up at 7am...no more attacks that night.

We get dressed and get ready to meet Alex for breakfast. While we are drinking canned coffee from the machine and sitting on the seawall near our guest rooms, we talk over again what happened the night before. At this time, Jocelyn informs me that what happened to us sounds like a kijimuna attack. I know of the kijimuna but not the specifics of their attacks. I always just thought they were these little elf-like creatures that lived in banyan trees, and part of a myth. When Alex arrives, we relay the story to him (which sends him into fits of giggles) and then again when we get to breakfast at the other guesthouse. Irei-san tells us that kijimuna attacks are very common, and doesn't seem surprised by our story at all...in the course of the day, we meet several others that have been attacked in similar ways.

I feel kind of weird about the whole thing...honored that I have experienced this very unique thing but also kind of scared of the fact that what I thought was a cute story, is real. I'll never look at a banyan tree quite the same way.

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Five Years Ago on In My Words...Corona

Car Crash

Okay, it isn't like I don't have tons to write about...it is just that I keep putting my writing on the back burner because other things jump to the front and need immediate attention. So I guess I will be putting together a few posts and scheduling some of them to be published later this week.

Anyhow, first off, I was in a traffic accident last week. A speeding moped driver tboned my car in the driver's side door while I was on my way to geocache on Sunday. I haven't been in an accident like that before, and it really rattled me. I found myself thinking about it the next two days all the time.

I was only cut up a bit and the moped driver broke his leg. It could have been a million times worse in so many ways so we are both pretty lucky, but it still is an unnerving experience. I was shaking so bad, I couldn't dial my phone when it first happened.

More than likely, the driver's side door will have to be replaced. I have to go through our safety inspection required here every two years, in April so I need to get this fixed as soon as possible.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Nekid as a Jaybird

The Negative of Facebook

While to most of us, it seems like Facebook gives us more opportunity to stay in touch and keep family and friends up to date...I sometimes have to wonder if it is the exact opposite.

Yes, I do check in with Facebook regularly (too regularly probably) and when I do post something new on my main blog, it does feed into my Facebook Notes to update my friends and family there. The problem is that because I feel like I am so connected, I have completely slacked off on any real correspondence, and believe me, I am a corresponder. I don't write emails much, I don't write snail mails much, and I definitely don't make phone calls. I have gotten so used to providing little "bites" of info, that I really feel like I don't have much to say that would be worth spending time writing an email,letter or even a blog post for that matter.

Reality is that I am providing "tidbits" to hundreds of friends on Facebook daily and to those that read my blog when I update it, but nothing really personal and definitely nothing to those that don't use computers, like our grandparents. Due to my need to maintain a bit of anonymonity I have to keep things a bit vague and inpersonal on the web, so that dictates a certain level of correspondence on Facebook and Blogger.

There is no excuse though, for emails, letters and phone calls that I am just not making to those close to me. I need to get back to writing personal, real correspondence to those I love. It has been too long.

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Five Years Ago on In My Words...Procrastination Has Taken Over

Slacker

I hate that even when I KNOW I am getting a lot of others things done, there are certain things that will make me feel like a slacker if I don't accomplish them.

These things are exercise (which should be the highest priority), corresponding, and time doing all the little things that I am interested in but don't seem to find time for (Japanese studying, writing, guitar, piano, beading, cards, geocaching...etc). This third thing is a real bugger since I can see evidence of these interests all over the house...One of the few things I do devote time to regardless is my reading...have to have my reading.

Lately, corresponding and writing have been the top of the list of things that I have been slacking on. Writing is a release for me and I have always loved it, and used it to my benefit. I have kept a journal since I was in the 6th grade. Corresponding with family and friends has always been something I have enjoyed and taken time for but it seems in the last year, I haven't been very good at staying on top of it.

Part of why I am writing this post is because I hate that I haven't been blogging like I want to, but of course right now I am supposed to be out of the house in 25 minutes and I am still drinking my morning coffee and sitting in my pajamas so this will not be my best composition. I can't tell if it is better that I am writing something or if I should wait and write something better....catch 22 on that.

So here is an attempt to not be a slacker....hopefully I can keep it up.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Done Messing Around