Aging

Yes, by the way, I am still alive...
I have just started a more simple blog for what G and I are up to (new site so it is Family friendly...)


Received this from my Cuz. Made me giggle.

George Carlin's Views on Aging
Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

'How old are you?' 'I'm gonna be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 5 0 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30 ; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST 92.'

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. 'I'm 100 and a half!'

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them.'

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,but by the moments that take our breath away.

Woke up to this Sunday morning...

G and I were at the pub Saturday night until 2am or so and when we went to bed the world looked normal and not all that cold. We woke up Sunday morning, looked out the bedroom window and this was the view of our backyard (this should be movie so click on the picture and hopefully it works):

I was a little annoyed we slept in and missed some quality snow time but it lasted all day and my we had fun playing in it!

Ha, take that!

To all those people who constantly tease me about becoming American...
This dumb quiz says I'm not!
Paris here I come...

You Are 16% American

You're as American as Key Lime Tofu Pie Otherwise known as un-American! You belong in Cairo or Paris... Get out fast - before you end up in Gitmo!

How American Are You?

Yes I am a live, kinda

Wow there goes that month, but I really would like to know where it went... Why have I been quiet on the blog front this time? I am just trying to live through every day like everyone else. No apologies, but a warning. This is a bit of a Wah post.

It's all sinking in that I am leaving here at the end of the year (Jan at the latest). Work has started piling up. Some of my experiments take 3 months and I have to carefully use the time I have left. I am freaking out a bit that I just wont get things finished. I knew this was always going to be the case but reality is a different place. Just to give me more pressure, my boss has requested the paper I was going to write up before I left, be finished in October. That's two months away. I'll have to make do with what I have. I had planned to fit in another 3-month-er experiment in before then. Hope it will be okay without it. I also have a student starting in September that I'll have to supervise, and the new person who will take over my project to train. The reason the paper is now to be written by October is because my boss wants me to write another in Dec. I am also being constantly called on to look at/reanalyse/repeat experiments from the person I replaced so that paper can be written up (thankfully by my boss). Somewhere in there I have to find time to do my own experiments and wrap things up in some sort of sensible way so the work can be continued. I _really_ don't want a repeat of what happened when I left my last job. At least I am thinking about all these things now rather than at the end of November. However, I do need to learn how to say "No" a few more times!

I wont go into the stress my mum has added on top of all this with her super-helpful, super-organising mode she currently is in. Helping me to smoothly get out of Houston, "helping" with the wedding... (I know someone has to seeing I can't easily do it from here and manage all that is happening here). I am finding it all too much. I am barely keeping my head above the surface. Hence the silence. I just can't keep up with everything. I also know it is going to get worse before it gets better. Talking with people at work has helped a bit as it serves as a reminder that everyone has problems and pressures to cope with. Puts things in perspective. Venting also makes me feel better. But I am still waking up during the night and then finally giving up on pretending to sleep by 5 am and getting up to find something to do (talk to G if he is around). I usually wake up when the sun comes into my bedroom. But its definitely still dark at 5 am. I am the only cause. I just can't switch my brain off. Stupid brain. Just too much going on.

The sweeter the apple...

"The sweeter the apple, the blacker the core"
Dorothy Parker (American short-story Writer and Poet, 1893-1967)

What is it about villains and bad boys eating apples? Green apples at that?

Can't think of a title

After Friday and Saturday's concert fest I really had had my fill so today I went shopping instead. I have been desperate for new jeans for work. The holes in my current pair have become too raunchy for the workplace. I hate shopping for jeans, hence why I have continued to wear the old ones until they fell apart. After trying on twelve different pairs I found two that I liked. I also scored two pairs of shoes, a skirt, two pairs of shorts and a new handbag. Not bad really. Mostly all from BT's favourite shop with designer names for bargain prices. I think I was in desperate need of clothes shopping. The last time I did some serious clothes shopping was when JD was here.

It was such a nice day. Today was the first day in a long time where it hasn't rained at all. I forgot what the sun looked like. I quickly remembered what it felt like, hot. Then again while it was bright and sweaty outside, it wasn't that bad. I know it can and will get a lot worse.

Ms Jimmy hear the news about Toni? Glad you guys had fun on Saturday. I was impressed with how smooth the streaming of the concerts went seeing how popular it all was (SMH).

I was searching for images of Captain Barbossa and I came across this site. It isn't in english but the pics are too cute! Not sure how they relate to Captain Barbossa. I was going to post some here, but I couldn't choose which one.

Just for you G no random pic today.

Music

7/7/07. Today was my Eldest cousin's Birthday.

Today was a productive day which is surprising seeing how little sleep I had last night. I hadn't originally planed on watching the entire Earth Live Sydney concert, but I did and therefore was up until almost 6am. Little did I realise that the online streaming of the concerts is on continuous cycle, so I could have gone to bed at a reasonable hour and then watched the rest in the morning. Oh well. As it was I napped in the boring bits and then when the Sydney concert finished I went to bed for 2.5 hrs as I wanted to watch the London concert starting at 8am Houston time. Yes I am mad. The London concert had the best line up by far. Not surprisingly I feel asleep on the couch and missed a slab of the London concert, but I have had it running in the background all day while I cleaned the house (that was the major productive aspect of the day), cooked dinner (masaman curry) for N and P who came over and stayed around to watch the concert. I now only have it running in the background to catch the slab I slept through. It is not too different to having music going but I can't help but think it goes against everything the concerts were promoting. Instead of conserving energy, I have been running my laptop and tv (laptop hooked up to tv) all day and night. But I have been very conservative with my air-conditioning for someone who lives in Houston! I also catch the bus to work everyday and hardly ever drive my car so maybe it balances out.

Seeing the previous post had a pic from my trip to Dallas, here are pics of one of the very few interesting things to do/see in Dallas.

The site of the JFK assassination.




This one is the old Texas School Book Depository (It’s now the Dallas County Administration Building). The sixth floor is a museum of the JFK assassination and conspiracies. The actual window is set up as it would have been at the time and is permanently half open (the six floor square end window).



People really do mill around and discuss the theories. You can see people pointing to the window and the cross in the middle of the road. They dodge the traffic to run out and take their photos. The markings on the road and curb are remainders of the many investigations that have taken place.