Bird Washing Machine

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this but 7 minutes compared to 2 hours seems like a better deal. More birds can be cleaned and they are back home in a shorter period of time. My preference would be not spilling the oil in the first place but until we get over our dependence on oil I don't see that happening any time soon. 

Check out this video and let me know what you think...

Word!

Today's word is brought to us by William Gibson in his book "Spook Country."

I've heard this word before but reading it today made me giggle, I just love it! Today's word is Wonky! It still makes me giggle, it may be my new favorite word. WONKY! OK, settle down. Calming...
WONKY! hee hee,

Now for the definitions...

Urban Dictionary:
weird, whacked out, messed up, not working for no definable reason. Usually applied to technology. This is one of my favorite places to look up words.

Merriam-Webster (online):

Pronunciation: \ˈwäŋ-kē\

Function: adjective

Inflected Form(s): won·ki·er; won·ki·est

Etymology: probably alteration of English dial. wankle, from Middle English wankel, from Old English wancol; akin to Old High German wankōn to totter — more at wench

Date: 1918

1 British : unsteady, shaky
2 chiefly British : awry, wrong

The free dictionary online:

wonky [ˈwɒŋkɪ]adj -kier, -kiest Brit informal

1. shaky or unsteady

2. not in correct alignment; askew

3. liable to break down or develop a fault

If you've never read William Gibson books and you're into computers, the Internet, cyberspace, GPS whatever, I highly recommend picking up one of this books. I've read most all of them and I'm always amazed by his ability to write and create his world.

Here's a blurb from the book cover:

"A writer who can conjure the numinous out the the quotidian." - The Washington Post Book World.

"William Gibson can craft sentences of uncanny beauty, and is our great poet of crowds." - San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

"Gibson has a bone-dry wit, and an insistence that the technology we create will inevitably evolve beyond us." - Entertainment Weekly

WONKY! :)

How to eat an elephant...

one bite at a time. 

Yesterday my work spouse and I were chatting about a mutual friend and some trouble she's having. We've both listened to her and tried to be sympathetic but sorry, my sympathy only goes so far then you need to buck up, take responsibility for your life and deal with it. 

Anyway, while we were chatting I made the statement "how do you eat and elephant?" "one bite at a time." I must have subconciously needed to hear that myself for as soon as I said it I knew that was advice I needed to take myself. For the past several weeks I've had way too much on my plate and I can't seem to get anything done. My job, my union work, my house and the people in my life have been so demanding that at one point I was so overwhelmed I had to just stop and walk away. So today I'm taking the first bite out of that elephant. The weather has made a number of decisions for me so I don't have to. 

My first step is to write everything down, take it out of my head and put it in writing. There is a certain someone who has been in my head for the past several months and she needs to get out so I plan to address that this week. Hopefully I'll see her on Saturday and if not then for sure on Sunday. One way or another I'm going to deal with the reality of that situation. 

The next step is to break down those chores and things-to-do and make them into small bites. I'm going to reward myself after every 10 items I cross of my list. And I'm going to start saying "no" to people. 

Look out elephant I'm going to take a big bite out of your ass this weekend!

Word!

Today's word brought to us by Patricia Cornwell and her book "Book of the Dead."

Oedipal: of, relating to, or resulting from the Oedipus complex.

What, do you ask, is the Oedipus complex? Well let's look that up too.

Oedipus complex: Greek mythological character. In Greek mythology Oedipus was the son of Laius and Jocasta, the king and queen of Thebes. Because at his birth an oracle had predicted that he would someday murder his father and marry his mother, Oedipus was abandoned by his parents, but he survived to maturity. Through a highly improbable series of circumstances, he fulfilled the prophecy: he unknowingly slew his father and later married his widowed mother, thereby succeeding his father to the throne. When the truth was eventually revealed to all, Jocasta committed suicide and Oedipus blinded himself.

Well now doesn't that sound lovely? 

In the book they were talking about one of the male characters and his obsession with an older female character.  If you're a fan of Patricia Cornwell and the Scarpetta series then you will probably like this book. I've read most all the the Cornwell books including the non-fiction one about Jack the Ripper and "Book of the Dead is about average for her books. I wouldn't recommend paying full price for it, find it at the library or a used book store. It's not worth full price.

When I read the word the first thing I thought of was Scrabble, I'm always looking for words for that game. I've started a little notebook with words I find in books and/or games I've played. I really like it that you can archive your previous games, it gives ya a chance to look at all the words that have been played. Funny how just like in crossword puzzles we repeat a lot of the same words. I'm still trying to figure out how someone can score over 3000 points in Scrabble, I haven't even broken 500 yet! 

Anyway, this brings me to something else I've been thinking about. I read a lot of books and have several friends who I trade with. What I've been thinking is that I'd like to start a book club. Not a regular run of the mill book club but one where we don't all read the same book at the same time, we meet maybe once a month and each person gives a review on the book they've most recently read. We each bring our book to the meeting and we can exchange with each other. Eventually we will all have read the books and can discuss what we think of them. The more I think of it, maybe it should be a book exchange group. We meet once a month, chat about books we've read or are reading and bring along books to exchange. We could also do brunch or something. Yeah, I'm liking this. I think I'll send out a message and see if I get any response. I'm thinking Friday mornings. I know a lot of people work on Fridays but I also know a lot of people who don't. Plus a number of friends are school teachers and they have the Summer off. It doesn't have to be the same group of people each month, just whoever can show up. Boy could I come up with an eclectic group of book readers.  

The Friday Book Brunch, I like the sound of it...

Mixed Feelings

There are times, actually a lot of times when I do things that I have mixed feelings about. Today is one of those times. I did something today that I've wanted to do for a long time, I'm happy I did it and I want to share it. However, there is a side of me that thinks I should keep it to myself. It's kind of a private thing but not really. OK, so I sound neurotic but as I said I have mixed feelings about it. I know that I will share it with a handful of friends but I will also keep it from others. I'm certainly not going to post it here for the entire world to see but I'm compelled to express my thoughts, that's why I started this blog in the first place.

One thing I will talk about is my evening adventure. Tonight I started my Spring Forest Qigong level ll healing class. It was a wonderful experience. I have long held the belief that everything is made of energy and we can heal ourselves.

In September of 1991 I had the opportunity to test my belief. At approximately 10:15 AM I was involved in a head-on collision. I sustained some serious injuries and found myself lying in an emergency room with doctors telling me I would never walk again, never go back to work, blah, blah, blah. Let me tell you when you are 28 years old, all alone in the emergency room with doctors telling you this, it is scary as hell! I remember my first thought was "fuck you!" Second thought was ""that's bullshit, I don't believe it." Third thought was "fuck you" again. I had 3 doctors tell me the same thing and show me X-rays, each time I did not believe it. My 4th thought was "I'm not going to be a burden to anyone, thank God I already have my emergency plan* in place."

To make a long story short, the doctors were wrong. I was off work for 5 months and spent that time healing myself. Yes, I followed the doctors orders, well, everything except the drugs. I did not take any prescription medications, no pain killers, nothing! I meditated, I visualized, I changed my life, my diet, my entire world. I practiced what I preached!

I tested my beliefs and they held strong and true and made believers out of a lot on non-believers. Even my mother a long standing Christian has changed some of her ideas. She has a new found respect for my ideas.

So when I was introduced to Qigong earlier this year it was a perfect fit. Qigong is spiritual healing, which is also called energy healing or message healing, or information healing, or signal healing. You must have love, forgiveness and kindness in your heart and soul. I took the level one training about 2 months ago and now I've begun the level two training. I am very excited about this and looking forward to next weeks class.

Stay tuned I'll keep ya updated on my progress and feel free to volunteer for a healing. I need the practice :)

Namaste

* emergency plan= assisted suicide. I have a pact with a friend of mine that if either one of us finds ourselves in a position that we cannot get out of, no longer want to live we will provide the means to take our own lives. I believe that NO ONE has the right to take the life of another person, the only life you have the right to take is your own. I have no issues with people who commit suicide, it's your choice, just as you chose life you can choose death.