My Blog List

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Perspective ...

Once again the world has brought me back to reality, an appreciation for the things I have and perspective on things I don't have, have missed out on, don't care to go there, or whatever ...

Recent conversations with friends and other readings has once again given me a new lease on life (yeah for friends!) It may not be a mansion, nor compare with your abode, but my castle is just that, and I'm happy! It's large enough to hold my stuff (and I don't know about you, but I have way too much stuff), yet still small enough for me to manage (aka clean - occasionally).

I may not earn as much as you, but I do have a stable income which gives me some extra $ above and beyond the bare necessities. Someday I will take a real vacation, someday I will plant that extra garden, and from time to time I blow a few $$ on something silly ... Another YeaH.

My job is not my dream career, it may not have the status of your position, but it is secure. I'm lucky 'cause I'll not experience the meat market called looking for work, and I'll not experience the daily stress of trying to push myself ahead in your dog-eat-dog ambitious world. Besides, I'm a cat person ;)

I don't drive a Mercedes, but I also don't pay for one . My car is in a Red/Green stage, with duct tape plastered all over the front bumper to hold onto the last scraps of paint. Never mind, it gets me where I want to go quickly, efficiently and affordably. YEaH

I don't dress in the latest fashions, a new outfit for every occasion. I do manage to get something new each season and am not too out-of-date. Neither do I look like a middle aged frau attempting to be the perennial teenager. I know who/what I am and dress accordingly. I have a good sense of colour and what styles look good on my body frame. Yes, I watch What not to Wear

I don't have my very own DH (I'm really beginning to hate this particular abbreviation), and guess what - I DON'T CARE! I don't have any kiddies or grand babies, and guess what - I DON'T CARE ! I really, truly am a well adjusted, happy independent spirit ... I have an active social life, lots of friends, interests and hobbies - enough to keep me busy for a lifetime. YEAH

SO THERE - Large raspberry to all you doubting Thomases/Thomasinas. There is life, real life, meaningful, fulfilled, happy life without a DH, kiddies, professional status, wealth or big cars.

TTFN

Monday, June 16, 2008

Think Think Think - Read Read Read - Google Google Google

Some of my quilting friends have been asking how is the internet changing the Library world? Well , my best answer to this question comes from an article "Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr at Atlantic Monthly July/August 2008.

Mr. Carr provides a wonderful explanation as to how the internet, and Google is changing the way people think, read, research and, sad to say, interact with libraries and each other. He makes the point that the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, "media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought." Carr postulates that the "the style of reading promoted by the internet, a style that puts efficiency and immediacy above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading". This is all rather worrying for academia and libraries. Carr continues that "The result is to scatter our attention and diffuse our concentration As people’s minds become attuned to the crazy quilt of Internet media, traditional media have to adapt to the audience’s new expectations"

For Nicholas Carr, deep reading is " a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off within our own minds. In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book, or by any other act of contemplation, for that matter, we make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas. Deep reading, as Maryanne Wolf ( Center for Reading and Language Research Professor of Child Development) argues, is indistinguishable from deep thinking. " Carr asserts that "we risk turning into pancake people — spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button.”

OUCH - pancake people! I'm flat chested enough and don't need to be challenged in any other way! I know my life and my job have been dramatically affected by the internet. Although I agree with much of Mr. Carr's thesis, I still wouldn't be without Google or the internet! What to do, what to do ...

TTFN

Monday, June 09, 2008

Restoration!


Thank goodness for the restorative powers of weekends!

Not that my weekend wasn't busy - never fear superwoman (me), was able to accomplish ever so much AND work a very dull Saturday. Managed to squeeze in a haircut, getting new tires (yup - the ol car is once again a safe beastie) and made it out to the local quilt store for brown "wood" fabric for the screen door baby quilt I will soon design. Also managed to sit on the patio a while reading, completed some vacuuming (yech), re-hemmed the sleeves of my new jacket, took in/altered 3 pairs of summer pants, did the dishes and took mother and her friends out to dinner to celebrate mother's 81st birthday! Phew!

And, just to validate that I'm not crazy, and my personal feelings are not just menopausal blues ..... this afternoon I came across a book on the new books shelf, Upon on opening this book to random pages I came upon these gems of wisdom:
"Being divorced and without children places a woman 'out of sync' with the majority of her peers in a world where the roles of wife and mother are still central to the perceived worth and value of women.
Despite significant social progress, these overwhelming pro-marriage, pro-natalist mandates continue to drive women's lives in pervasive ways.
The pathologizing and stereotyping of women who are, for whatever reasons, (not married) divorced, not remarried, not living with anyone, not in a traditional full time relationship, and childless, is a reflection of continued attachments to patriarchial paradigms about the expectations of women's roles and functions.

Divorced, Without Children. D.D. Castaldo

See ladies ....  Just what I've been telling you for years ..... It's not just my personal rant - it's actually being studied seriously by academics and clinicians ... FINALLY! Sometimes its just nice to know you're not crazy!!!!
TTFN

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Grand National!


Water, by Catharina Breedyk Law

So another road trip, yes ladies, my friends and I are travellers! This time to St. Jacob's Quilt Shows and Merchants Mall, followed up by the Grand National - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery. The exquisite image above is my "favourite" pick from all the wonderful art quilts in this exhibition. What more can I say .... we lucked out once again with wonderful weather, good company and that handy GPS gadget that got us into KW and back without a mixup (yeah).

And to top it all off at the end of the day Iris the cat came out of hiding, down the stairs to greet my friend and even allowed herself to be petted by a "stranger". Will wonders never cease???
TTFN