Living In the World, Not on It

The Blue Memory Meme, Part Two Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we also have our rules. First, we always credit the blog that we stole it from and we will “fess up” to the blog owner where we stole the meme. We also provide a link to the victim's post. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") We do sometimes edit the original meme, usually to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, sometimes to select that meme's best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from either this new meme or recently asked questions from a prior featured meme. Let's go!!! Today we ripped off a blogger and...

1) If you were a villain in a movie, what would your catch phrase be? Where do you come up with these questions? I haven't the faintest idea... Um, how about "In these shoes? I doubt you'd survive." 2) Marc and Angel Hack Life recently posted a list of "10 Things To Stop Caring About Today." What is something you care too much about that you wish you didn't? My not working any longer. 3) On Tuesday, NBC announced that it was canceling its new show "Playboy Club," making it the first cancellation of the TV season. What show do you hope is next for cancellation? H8R, New Girl, The Jersey Shore, and so many more. The Jersey Shore should be the first to go, of a certainty. Goodness me, who wants anyone to think that these morons are indicative of real New Jersey or New York people. Quite frankly they are all totally fake. Totally stupid. No one would miss them, any of them. 4) Many media outlets have been asking this question a lot t...

Welcome to Saturday: 9 . What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love memes, however, and here is today's meme! Saturday 9: Sleeping to Dream 1. Do you ever go to sleep to simply dream? I have, usually when waking up from a dream that was so good, I never wanted it to stop! 2. When you’re having trouble staying awake, what are some things you do to make sure you don’t drift off to sleep? I try reading, watching the telly, playing music, getting up and working around the house. I'm not usually able to sleep without sleeping medication, though, so this is not a huge problem... 3. What’s most likely to cause ...

Q1 - Life : Talking about yours for a moment ( i.e., the fact that you're among the living )... Do you think of life as a right or privilege , and how does your answer impact the way you live your life? It is a privilege . I have a genetic condition, so I consider each day above ground a good one. I enjoy every day, even the ones when I feel terrible, and do my best to see the magic in them. Q2 - Unexplained : Incidents of mass animal deaths have been reported in the U.S. and around the world in the past two months. Thousands of dead birds fell from the sky in Arkansas on New Year's Eve, following a massive fish kill just 100 miles away days earlier. In the week following, other mass bird deaths were reported in nearby Louisiana and Kentucky. Birds were also reported to fall dead from the sky in Italy and Sweden, and more recently similar incidents have been reported in California and Alabama. Mass fish kills have also been reported in Chicago, Maryland, Brazil and...

GAME : Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following they have to be real places, names, things; nothing made up! What is your name: A islinge 4 letter word: Re a d Vehicle: A cura CLS Type S (that really is my car!) TV Shows: Uh-oh... Grey's A natomy , White Coll a r, C a stle City: A msterdam Boy Name: A idann Girl Name: A islinn Alcoholic Drink: I absolutely do not drink a lcohol Occupation: Hum a n Resources, Emergency Medic a l Technician, now unemploy a ble Something you wear: P a jamas Celebrities: A lan Alda Food: A pples Something found in a bathroom: A toilet Reason for Being late: A ss____ drivers Cartoon Character: A uguste Gusteau ( Ratatouille ) Something You Shout: A AAAAAAAAAAA! *Number Two: The FAB FOUR . 4 Jobs I’ve Had: Human Resources Manager EMT Artist Receptionist 4 Films I Could Watch Over and Over: The Fifth Element Apollo 13 Monsters, Inc. Shakespeare in Love 4 Favorite TV Shows: Castle CSI: Crime Scene ...

When I first left work, I had this puzzle I was working on. At the time I left, I barely had Spring completed. It was creeping along... Notice my blog has been creeping along and suddenly this month I've posted a month's worth in a mere 14 days? That is a LOT of free time. I've actually had a lot of free time over the last three months, but I haven't really felt good about it. I figured with enough time I would reach the "I feel better about this point" and while I might still kinda get down about it, in general, I would start to feel better. (Wow. What a poorly structured sentence that is...!) Well, I have reached that point. Not that I didn't think I would. I just did not know how long it would take. It feels so much better to be more my sunny self again. Like I said, I may get down about it again, but at least it will be temporary. I suspect I'll feel it more in the winter. I thrive on sunlight. We have the longer days now, so I'm thriving. An...

It's tough to know how long this will last, although I have two weeks of the work life left... who knows how much I will be doing... and how much there will be to write about. Maybe my life will suddenly go from 65 miles an hour to zip and there won't be anything to say. Fat chance. The condition of the human race is to - in general - communicate. I am very much a communicator. So there will always be something to speak of, gripe about, rave over... etc. There is so much going on in life. OK, so I'm closing one chapter, and that is not easy. But I'm also looking forward to the next chapter, and we will see how that goes. I feel optimistic but reluctant to run into it at the same time. Been working so long, I really don't know how to do anything else. And there is that whole identity thing. So much is wrapped up in what one does rather than who one is. What's the first, maybe second, question that comes up in a conversation with a new person? "Oh, what do yo...

Yes, I've been more noticeable by my absence that my usually witty and urbane thoughts on this or that. Except for articles posted once in February and a few yesterday and this morning, I have not been around or online to digress or empty my monkey mind. Which is still screaming and scratching at its groin. I suspect it is not swinging through the trees, as that takes more energy than I can muster. My health is suddenly deteriorating very, very quickly. In the last two or three months, I've been getting more tired a lot more quickly and in the last two or more weeks, I'm having flare-ups almost daily. So when I get home, I take my "before I go to bed" nap. I usually hang out in my sky chair and maybe I watch the telly, but more often I read. Reading is much more worth it. Not that the telly is so bad, but it will never be as good as a book. So my last day of work is 18 March. A little weird, a lot unhappy, but also a wealth of relief. I've been pushing myself ...

"I happen to believe that a life unexamined is a life not worth living. I also happen to believe that a life examined will cause an incredible amount of heartache. With that dilemma in mind, here's where my examination has gotten me so far. The only real progress I've made as a human being came at those times when my carefully constructed ego was completely shattered by people and/or events. Unfortunately, that progress was always short-lived because each and every incident of ego deflation was followed by years of building up a stronger, more resilient replacement. Son, friend, athlete, musician, rebel, space cadet, husband, daddy, TV writer-producer, divorced guy, jerk, smart guy, wiseguy, fool, seventeen handicap, success, failure are all false selves because they are fleeting processes with no real substance or permanence. So where does this leave Chuck Lorre? Egoless? I wish. But it does make one think, maybe Prince was on to something when he shed his ...

I suppose there are a lot of people out there who just assume they are adults, that they have reached the line of maturity that labels one as an adult, not a child, not an adolescent. And by far, being an adolescent, real or imagined, is the worst. I never liked being a child. I never liked the company of children to adults, ever. But as a child, physically, most people are reluctant to treat children as anything other than children. But I have always developed attachments to people who appreciated the adult waiting inside, the adult that somehow - at age 42 - I seem to consistently misplace. I always liked Harry, my father. Harry is my biological father and while he missed out on a lot of things, I have to wonder if he really did. I know all people have their regrets, but would having to deal with the child me and worse, the adolescent me, be regrettable? Ask my parents, Ray and Ma, if that is true. I suspect they'd have been just as happy to miss that - those - bullets. Harry...

I was driving home from work, passed through a work zone that has been a work zone for a couple of years, where I never see any workmen... and I thought, "this must be a union job." Too much time is spent on the road. It's not me, really. I don't have a crazy commute. I go from one county to another. I drive though... let's see... Parsippany, Whippany, Florham Park, Summit and Springfield. It's an 18-mile trip on highways. The only local driving is about a mile and a half through Springfield, and the five minutes getting out of Parsippany and the 15 minutes getting in. Amazing what the time of day can do. I also don't take 287 North home, as I am adverse to sitting in traffic. I take exit 2 off Route 24, hop on Whippany Road, to Parsippany Road to Reynolds Avenue to South Beverwyck, which once across Route 46 becomes North Beverwyck and then after the light turn onto the little road and I'm home. Awesome. But how many people go into New York? Drive to ...

It makes sense that while the main "Happy Anniversary" post should mirror the topic of having my blog turn four, the second post to this would be best served in updating my bio - life was very different four years ago. So here goes: Yes, this is me. I've explained the nickname Tr'Aislínge at some point in the last four years, but not in the original post of 21 August 2005. My name is really Aislínge, pronounced ash-lin[g], but years ago when I worked at Miller Harness Company (then located in East Rutherford, New Jersey) as an assistant to the Apparel Purchasing division, three of us went out to lunch, actually had a drink or two and made up nicknames that have stayed since. Melissa Kaplan (now in Texas) became Smells, Rio (originally from England) became B.O., and I'm commonly called Ash, so I became Trash. I put the apostophy in shortly after to make it look more like a nickname, and since I prefer the long version of my name, I have Tr'Aislínge. I've ha...

What would make me say that? This! If you are wondering who that is, it's me. How do I know? Well, that wretched painting made it onto the local Wayne HS channel in 1985 or 1986, because it somehow ended up there after an art show and no one knew whose it was. (I find that a bit hard to believe, as I am distinctive looking - not in a model or famous person type way, but just easily recognisable throughout the ages). This was when I was working on it in Mrs Hughes' art class. And how else do I know? It's been a while, but I do remember life with just one chin. And normal, even (dare I think it) perky boobs. (We are dating ourselves now!) And the hair... I paid less attention to it then than now, hard to believe. I'm as indifferent as ever to fashion. I never made much of an attempt to care about it anyway. Funny to see me that age. I looked happy there, and happiness in high school was fleeting, to grabbed at whenever possible. It's painful to recall those days, when...

I'm reading Erma Bombeck's Forever, Erma , which is a book compiled from various articles whe wrote. How many of you under 40 know who Erma Bombeck is? Show of hands? All of you. Yes, I know. Every day that I scoff and laugh at aging and say that I refuse to let it get me down, there is another example of why some cultures have ritual suicide at a specific age... Anyway, in it is one article entitled Marching to a Different Drummer , dated November 3, 1979. She talks about her one son, who didn't fit into any of those typical descriptions of kids. That's me. I'm the baby who used the stuff in my diapers to draw on the walls. I'm the kid who threw a rabbit skin (very soft and fluffy) out the car window and yelled, "Furs flew away!" I'm the kid who played in the dirt, hated girlie clothes (as you can see, little has changed that way), and traipsed around the house in my mother's work clothes... a sequined bikini (she was a go-go dancer. What, are...

It's catch up time... 1. Take the quiz: What Is Your Name’s Hidden Meaning? Yowza! All I did was type in my wacky name in and LOOK at all the stuff! What Aislinge Means You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are the total package - suave, sexy , smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are relaxed,...

The disease manifests in funny ways. For a long time I was afraid that I was becoming dependent on Ambien. This may still be the case, but it is not for what you think. As I learn more about the effects of muscular dystrophy, both from reading and from experiencing different scenarios, I'm finding more and more events and localised issues suddenly falling into place or at least becoming clear. Not unlike my realisation that something more serious than just me turning into a monumental klutz... When I was in my early 30s I began to do really stupid things, like tripping up the steps - yes, I like to defy gravity. In my current weight class, this is the only way I can defy gravity, ha, ha! (Don't do what people do and say, "Oh, stop it!" There is nothing wrong with laughing at or using wit to comment on my own weight. It would be objectionable if I were a little sylph and complaining that I was a moose... but in this case, I am a moose!) Anyway, I was trip over imagin...

1. What are your favorite kinds of plant life (plants, flowers, etc)? Why? Okay, this may sound a little sick, but you asked for it: I find carnivourous plants fascinating. I used to have a Venus fly trap, which, sadly, I killed. I have a black thumb. Everyone knows by now not to buy me plants. But plants that eat insects and/or small animals - now, that is really neat! 2. Do you associate any memories with certain things (flowers, objects, etc)? Any you'd care to share? Oh, sure. But usually it is less obvious things, like an odor or a bit of music. Just a few minutes ago, listening to the soundtrack of Ratatouille I heard a bit of what sounded like Silent Night and the memory that it conjured was powerful enough that I thought I was going to cry! My father (Harry) used to sing that to me in German when I was little. I have few memories to go on of him that are positive, so to hear that was amazing. And very, very powerful. Same thing with odors. I might catch just a tiny wiff o...

Here is the quote to go by: "We accept that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was you think we had done wrong. But we think you're cray to make us write an essay to tell you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us; in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question?" I hated high school. I hated the people who turned a blind eye to the cruelty of others and I hated the peers who practiced that cruelty. I am glad I never went to my graduation - those hideous evil people did not deserve my time which is much more important to me than to spend it with them. I really disliked them. I don't remember too many students' names (which is actually fortunate for them, as I would happily and easily print them in this blog with all the things that they did. In all likelihood,...

Quiz How clean is your work space? A bit messy Spotless A total mess Do you have a clock prominently displayed? No Yes Do you have any photos of friends or family members displayed? Yes, mostly facing you Yes, mostly facing people who might visit your work space No Do you have any plants in your work space? No Yes Do you have a candy bowl or other treats out for people? No Yes What Your Workspace Says About You You are an organized and detail oriented person. You have your life in order. You are hardworking and driven. You have an excellent work ethic. You enjoy your job and don't feel guilty about how much time you spend working. You have a good balance between work and your personal life. You are still trying to figure out your ideal career. You could quit your current job on any given day. At work, you are an introvert. You don't like people coming around your work space. My Comments This is mostly accurate. I don't have photos of my family on my desk, at all. I read in ...

From Mary Says... blog: "Presented by Jules on a lovely silver platter over at Just Because... , here's another fun Meme! If you like, you may take it to your blog and do one for yourself and let me know so I can come by and read it!" 1. What does your name mean? Aislinge is Gaelic and translates into "a vision or dream". Kellogg is Cornish for "butcher" - kill-hog. Isn't that something? 2. Where was your profile picture taken? At the hairdresser's place. 3. What is your current relationship status? POSSLQ - Person of Opposite Sex Sharing Same Living Quarters. I say married, though - 18 years together - whether or not New Jersey recognises common law marriage - is married. New Jersey does not, but I don't worry about such things. We've been together longer than more than half the weddings we've been to. There is a direct and inverse relationship between the amount of money spent and the size of a wedding to the length of the marria...