Living In the World, Not on It

...to experience those things you want. I love science (yes, I'm repeating myself) and I love volcanoes, earthquakes and tornados - all those weird, wacky, powerful, decimating sorts of things. Now, don't get me wrong - I don't like the human disasters part - although when you think about it, five to forty deaths in a tornado that rates as an F5, cuts a miles-long swath is not a bad death toll. Think about it - something like that can kill far more people than that. But I don't have an interest in that part. I'm just fascinated by the nature - the powerful strength of the air, the earth, magma moving beneath the surface. I have not seen a volcanic eruption, but I have experienced three earthquakes (all very, very minor) and one tornado. The tornado was by no means an F5 (which is fine) but it was scary as hell and pretty much satisfied any desire I had to be that close to one. On 31 May 1999, a tornado ripped through Lake Parsippany, not a half mile from the house. ...

Saturday, 31 March 2007 05:39 Yes, my brain has too much time on its hands.... (and the penis part of this is very short. It's mostly about circadian rythms). OK. How is it that evey morning at five a.m. there is Luis' penis waving in the air. I don't get it. Everyone jokes about the morning hard-on, but it is there without fail as though some invisible, inaudible alarm clock that goes off and tells it to wake up... without the rest of him. It's really quite amusing. This morning I happened to really like that... People are all different and circadian rythms are, too (although the universal law of morning erections seems to be the same for every man and moves with the time zones as well). I'm very rigid when it comes to my own circadian rythm. I need more structure and the time change and longer and shorter days are difficult. In the winter I'm really off-kilter with the sun rising at 0730 and setting at 1630. But in the summer, with the sun setting at 2100 it ...

I have been thinking about work. Luis and I were talking about vacation and the value of it - I see the value, he does not. He loves his job that much, he tells me. And he would be right in thinking that many people don't love their jobs, and that a large group like thier jobs, but still are discontent enough to take vacation to get away from work. This is where we disagree to a degree. There are a lot of people who don't like their jobs and yes, vacation is a means of getting away. But I know plenty of people who do like their jobs and they still take their vacations and love it. It is a battery recharging thing. I get up every day and I feel great about going to work. I look forward to returning to work on Monday. I get a lot done and I feel like a million dollars! It is not an issue of look-I-cleared-more-out-of-my-Inbox - that is unrealistic. No one is that amazing. Or, if they are, there is clearly in inequality in the workload.

THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW YOUR CELL PHONE COULD DO: There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it: FIRST Subject: Emergency The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself outof the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out. SECOND Subject: Have you locked your keys in the car? Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock b...

A Week of a Word a Day! Monday, 19 March Hair! What a thing! People spend millions trying to grow it. Others spend even more to get rid of it. Some do both, though on different parts of their bodies. We can get in other people's hair (to annoy). We let our hair down (relax). We split hairs (make petty distinctions). Things can make our hair standon end (terrify), or we might be having a bad hair day (an unpleasant day). Sometimes literally. I have seen my niece in tears in a family wedding just because she felt her hair wasn't done as well as she had hoped. (I know what some of you are saying to yourselves, "Just because?") Our hair grows. We cut it. And in between we spend countless hours on it. This week we devote five days on hair -- and on their absence. This week's theme in AWAD: Hair today, gone tomorrow. piliferous (py-LIF-uhr-uhs) adjective Having or producing hair. [From Latin pilus (hair).] Tuesday, 20 March This week's theme: Hair today, gone tomorr...

'Sometimes, despite objections from IRS, taxpayers get to write off some oddball items. Here are some of our favorites. Admit it. As you've worked on your return, trying to come up with extra deductions to pump up your refund, you've taken a few flights of fancy. "Can I claim a deduction for all those blood donations at the Red Cross?" Nope. "How about a charitable contribution for all the time I donate to the church?" No, again. "Can I count the wedding gift for the boss's daughter as an employee business expense?" Come on! On the other hand, over the years your fellow taxpayers have beaten IRS in court on payments for many crazy things that most of us wouldn't even dream of claiming. We've uncovered what we think are the weirdest deductions allowed, ranging from pet food to free beer. 1. Pet Food A couple who owned a junkyard were allowed to write off the cost of cat food they set out to attract wild cats. The feral felines did mo...

This is an interesting article... Judging from the kind of mail we get at Men's Health from men seeking relationship advice, I can tell you this definitively about men: When a man falls for a woman, he falls hard. Men love to be in love. While men often get stereotyped as single-minded sex-seekers, the truth is that a man's stomach churns like a slushy machine when he's in those initial stages of the perfect relationship. When you consider that half of men say that they're currently not with their soul mates, that means a heck of a lot of slushy machines are waiting to be turned on. What are they waiting for? What makes a man fall in love? After you rule out the obvious intangible laws of chemistry, attraction, and being in the right place at the right time that kick-start many a relationship, I think the question really becomes this: What makes a man fall -- and stay -- in love? About 60 percent of men deem friendship the most important thing in a relationship (sex com...

Sure, we all know sign language. Flipping someone the bird, guesticulating while having a conversation, it is amazing how much hands can say. Hands say volumes - sometimes more for others, sometimes less (people are so varying, you know. Some people are very active speakers - I am - big surprise, right? Others don't move at all. Amazing). And bodies communicate a lot. There is sign language and there is American Sign Language (I only know a little bit) and then there is the sign languge I know - body language. Laugh all you want. So many people come in to see me and it is funny, because I know if he or she really has something serious on his or her mind. Sometimes I don't - there are some people who have too much rigidity or just don't emote the same way or whatever. But most people do. You can see it in the posture, the way he or she moves, the set of his or her hands or arms or the expression on his or her face. That is the easiest thing to hide. I normally don't. I t...

We did a total 180 from warm, beautiful late-spring weather to my Gods, where did the winter come from? I drove home on Wednesday afternoon with loud but wonderful music, the windows down and the sunroof open. With a normal, lightweight shirt on! It was delightful - so warm, so sunny, no humidity - that ruins the summer here, if the weather was dry life would be better! Anyway, it was a treat after snow, sleet and frigid temperatures to have a day that was actually in the 80s and beautiful outside. On Thursday morning it was 62 F and okay - and by 1400 the temperature had dropped to the high 40s and was grey and ominously cloudy. When I got home, it was just starting to rain... little cold hard pellets hitting the windshield. When we headed out to our call at 2140, it was ice falling from the sky. That was it. We headed to Morristown Memorial and when we returned the ice was still falling. When I went to be around 2330, it was still pounding against the windows. When I finally gave up ...

OK. The one and only thing that George W. did right and it still is not any easier. The clocks went back on Saturday night (let's be honest, here. I am not getting my ass outa bed at 0200 to set the clocks back! Does anyone?). I got up Sunday morning and the daylight was gone - poof! Just like that. Well, OK. I did end up going back to bed and getting a bit more sleep, but that is not often unusual with me. I wake up fairly close to my normal waking time but on weekends, I go to bed later. It is confusing. As if that wasn't confusing enough, the clocks went back three weeks earlier, so all the normal weirdnesses that go along with April's time change weren't there. They were weirdnesses I'd never dealt with. The times that usually go with the bi-annual time changes were all off. It was weird... I just don't know how I did not figure that. 21 days in terms of lengthening days can see a lot of change. Apparently they did - or didn't. The sun was not as far alo...

I mentioned to Tom today that I am going to Las Vegas in May to have a great time and live a little for a vacation. He had some wonderful suggestions and I am sure that we will talk more about this between now and then. He has been to Vegas many, many times. So has Luis but his focus tends to be single-minded in a few areas of interest: gambling (and not so much in recent years) and scantily clad women. I don't mind in the least that Luis is focussed on scantily clad women! That is normal for men and it creates a win-win situation - he goes out to see the scantily clad women and then returns to me to get the action - everybody's happy! Everyone's a winner: the scantily clad women got tips/lap dance money (those things are not cheap!), Luis got a thrill and gets laid, and I get laid! What's not good about that? Some of Tom's suggestions (what to see): Mandolay Bay Aquarium - for $15.00 (!) you get free range of the aquarium for the whole day, if you want it. You als...

15 March 2007 19:40 It has been a day. It was not an abnormal day - not until after rig check. I got up, I went to work, I did a lot at work. I actually did a whole lot at work - I was lavishly complimented today by several people. It was a good day but it was weird... I'm very tired, very warn out. I have worked every Saturday but one for the last six or seven weeks and I don't mind putting in the time, I love my job, but I need a rest. And a three day weekend is just the ticket! But the tank is running empty... and some of my conversations reflected it. And now - again - my mother is in the hospital. Now, that just sucks. I mean, really, really sucks. They are supposed to be going to Las Vegas on Monday, but with her having a TIA it seems like they won't be boarding a plane. I certainly can't say I feel sanguine about it. A highly pressurised cabin with a possible brain problem is just NOT a good idea. I can't be the only one thinking that. (Maybe I am, but only b...

...what to write about. But I haven't written in a while, so I'm jonesing. Isn't that funny? I suppose there are a million things that people jones over. Drugs, alcohol, sex, whatever, pick your poison. My poison? Communicating! Writing - both physically and mentally and psychologically satisfying! That makes me weird, right? Well. I could be a drug addict. I hate swalling pills and quite frankly, while needles don't bother me, I need not be on the receiving end of them. I prefer to watch the medics putting them into other people. (Yes, that is weird!) I could be an alcoholic, but as you can see from a posting in February, I have already discovered that drinking - especially when upset - is completely ineffective - for most people it makes things worse, but since everything is right there on the surface with me (and I choose to be that way), there is no more severity from drinking. But it doesn't make happy person pop back out when things are down. Sex. Well, I love...

" 'Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?' I apparently am not, but neither are the adults that go on FOX’s new show to win some money and show the world just how smart (or not) they are. FOX’s “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader” debuted last week conveniently located after “American Idol.” Audiences could watch Simon and the other “Idol” judges praise or criticize how much or little talent people have on “Idol” and then move on to watch grown adults try to match wits with 10- and 11-year-olds while host Jeff Foxworthy cracked some jokes. Here’s how the show works: One adult contestant has to answer questions in subjects such as reading, math, physical science, animal science and astronomy. These questions range in difficulty from first to fifth grade, and as in “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire,” answering questions correctly moves the prize winnings up a money ladder. The contestant also gets to choose one of the show’s 5th grade kids as a classmate for two questions each and, ...

Total Eclipse will be Visible Tonight In the words of 20th Century Jesuit priest and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: "Everything that rises must converge." In this case, it will be the moon rising to converge with the Earth’s shadow in a total lunar eclipse tonight, the first such celestial happening visible from the Western Hemisphere since October 2004. "The sun is like a light bulb and the Earth is some distance away from it, and so the Earth casts a shadow in space all the time," explained David Cohen, Associate Professor of Astro nomy at Swarthmore College. "When the moon passes through that shadow, it becomes very dark, and often a very nice dark shade of red." This is because the sunlight blasting directly through Earth’s atmosphere is bent, scattering the blue spectrum while reds, oranges and browns get through. The exact color of the moon depends on the amount of atmospheric dust in the atmosphere, said another Associate Professor of Astrono...