April 14, 2006
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FRIDAY FIVEAppetizer – About how many times per day do you check your email?
So many beaucoup de times because when I’m at work I have to
communicate that way for most of what I do and when I’m at home it’s
about once an hour just to stay current so it doesn’t pile up.
But I’ve been really kind of puzzling lately about how much time I
spend at the computer – like many of us do. Email is one thing,
because most of the people who email me are people I know in
three-dimensional real life, but blogging is different. It has
its own attraction because you can say things you might not in person
that express your more vulnerable side, you can use photos to express
yourself, and post poems you’ve written, etc. And some families
communicate this way in a wonderful way, all members having their own
blogs. Still, I sense sometimes the looking glass between real
life and blogging life. I’ve already cut back to not blogging
daily like I used to, so maybe that’s enough for now. We’ll
see….
Soup – If you had the money to collect something really valuable, what would it be?
Houses. I’d love to have a house at the beach and one in the
mountains while still maintaining a primary one in the city.
Again, it’s about that balance between intimacy and solitude.
Salad – Write a sentence using the letters of your favorite beverage. (Example: The egret admires.)
Crossing over fallow fields elk emigrate.
Main Course – If you could be on a game show, which one would you want it to be?
Ick, game shows. I would rather die. But I just watched a unique
film about spelling bees called Bee Season, where the whole family is
into finding god. It takes losing a championship to find each
other.
Dessert – Name 3 computer programs or web sites you would hate to be without.
Pandora my constant musical companion at work (computer too old at home
to keep it steady), Google for finding pretty much everything, and
Xanga, of course, for challenging me to stay in my world and keep
writing.
Deep Thought:
“A lot of times when you first start out on a project you think, This
is never going to be finished. But then it is, and you think, Wow, it
wasn’t even worth it.”
Today I am grateful for: Being able to find the in between.
Guess the Movie: “Half my
life is over and I have nothing to show for it. Nothing. I’m a
thumbprint on the window of a skyscraper. I’m a smudge of excrement on
a tissue surging out to sea with a million tons of raw sewage.”
“See? Right there. Just what you just said. That is beautiful. ‘A
smudge of excrement… surging out to sea.’” Answer: Sideways, 2004.
Winner: SuSu.
Immigrants Show Their Strength
by Ruth Conniff
As thousands of people rallied in cities around the country Monday–the
National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice–police, city officials,
and local media were once again surprised by the size and strength of
their local immigrant populations. The invisible cleaners, child care
workers, and landscapers were suddenly pouring into the streets,
chanting, speaking out, making themselves seen. (Rest of
article here.)
Comments (30)
interesting picture…
Ooooh… i’ve seen that movie… *wracking my brain* …but i can’t remember…
EMAIL–A Story. Just completed my taxes yesterday, and in the process of doing that I had reviewed my electric bills. I usually never do that because they’re on and averaged autopay program. So anyway, I noticed the last two months electric usage (based on that cool little 12 month chart they do) had doubled from what it usually is. No mystery, my daughter and son in law have moved in our basement and they’re using the new little electric room heaters and he’s been baking almost daily for the past 6 weeks or so.
In a dad moment, I’m now considering what to do to get the electric beast back in its cage. I don’t want to stifle baking, and if the kids are cold, I guess that’s what heaters are for (they turn them off or down when not in use). We do however have computers in the house– lots of them– probably 5 desktops and 5 laptops. I know all the desktops stay on 24/7 which is the same as leaving a 1500w hair dyer on 24/7. I have no idea how much that is in dollars.
The point of all that is, I hesitated turning off my computer at night because of email drifting in while I’m not there. I live and work by email so much of the time.
Last night I turned it off. Wasn’t too hard. It turned back on this morning, and guess what. My email popped in too.
I love email.
On COLLECTING. I’m with you on the house thing. One “on” the beach somewhere, one in the mountains “on” a lakeshore and one somewhere where it’s warm, maybe Honduras or Costa Rica. Just small cozy ones with lots of windows.
Unfortunately my collecting is now limited to shallow things like my international capitalism global reach collection–coke cans and bottle from the farther points of the globe. The thing you learn from coke cans is that on any day we are one can away for world saturation of any message. Just put it on a coke can and it will be in the most remote spot on earth.
GAMESHOWS. Based on nightmares through the years, I’m convinced my mind would completely blank out on any game show… and I would probably show up on stage in my underwear (you know how those nightmares go– at least I hope its not just me…)
COMPUTER PROGRAMS/WEBSITES. Hmmm. Well– email definitely. Ebay. Familysearch.org for free family history resource. Mid-Continent Public Library website (Independence, MO)– for $20 a year you have great access to their wonderful online database collection. BibleGateway.com– easy to find that thing you though was in the Bible and see it transposed through about 20 translation and paraphrase variations. And last but not least, bookfinder.com who I think was the first and best consolidator of online vintage book availability.
(I think I’ll transfer this comment to my blog for the day– too much energy went into it
I check my email way too much. But I teach online classes and I have too.
I blog way too much. I have several related to college and a couple for myself.
Computer pgms/web sites: dogpile for a search engine, Blackboard – where I teach my online classes, and various email progams.
Drive Reta past every pickled pork eaters residence.
There are tools and methods for dealing with email. Most people use email for the wrong purposes anyway. So, try to reduce your inbox to zero
Thanks. The “study in blue” is just a photo of a movie on TV late at night.
Some days my email doesn’t get downloaded at all because of frequent problems at the ISP. When I can get it, usually it’s only once daily, immediately after I log on in the morning, unless I’m expecting a response to something. The filter at the ISP that catches spam gets cleaned at irregular intervals. When something I expect doesn’t come through, that’s the first place I go (and it’s usually there), but otherwise I tend to forget it for weeks at a time. I have had over a thousand messages to skim through there a few times.
Sideways
Alrightythen! Sideways wins.
Pssssssst! Silly Lionne…the five is for fridays! *wink*
Oh no, I did it again!
Hi there. I enjoyed reading your post. I defintely spend too much time checking email & Xanga myself. Thanks for visiting & subscribing to me
Take care!
But Every Ermine Reeks.
At work I check e-mail all the time. The best way of communicating.
Okay, Sideways, one day I am going to get it before anybody else. E-mail is the mainstay of the current industry. I preach this to my students everyday, “Learn to write a legible, intelligient sentence, it is the curse of your generation.” I get blank stares, but really, there is nothing worse than a poorly written e-mail that goes out company wide. Have a great weekend.
Tricia
Andrea, I am glad we have spent some time together the last months and we are getting to be friends, Happy Easter, Judi
i thought that thursday was friday, too!
one of that group looks familiar….
it’s not how many times i check for email, it’s how many times i look under the doormat
Analogy will work. Hippy Easter!
It was great to meet you today!!……I thought of a zillion questions for you on my ride home! ha One of the things I wanted to talk to you about was photography……you always post the most interesting pictures ….guess there will just HAVE to be another time to hook up!! Donna
Mom, I got the machine and my modem was waiting for me at home. It’s all hooked up and works great!
I wouldn’t have thought of it if you hadn’t mentioned it, but I am sitting here zipping around the world on Xanga looking at great pictures and reading thoughtful blogs that make me think. Trouble is, I thought I was listening to the Giants play the Dodgers and playing Xanga in the background, but it looks like it is the other way around. Seventh inning? What happened in the 5th and 6th?
ryn: cold is an understatement. It was -25 F in that exbihit hall. I lasted for five minutes before my fingers froze. I went back in several times after warming-up breaks. lol
Happy Easter.
Better erase every record. That one is short and easy to do.
Tricia
Thank you!
It was easy, I just searched the internet and found a template I liked.
hey, thanks for stopping by my xanga. i’m happy you liked my entry. i like your site too ’cause there’s so much to read here and it’s real interesting. i hope you don’t mind if i subscribe, i’d love to read more. take care, charlie.
Google, Xanga, and word press Judi
eek I dont want to count how many times I check mine..but its mostly for work..umm yeah thats the ticket!
Ive never heard of Pandora but love google and rather fond of xanga too
is that a high school? more importantly…is that a high school student holding a cigarette in a high school?
woe. even their shoes are the same….except the one on the far left. his shoes are different.
I check my email a zillion times a day. RYC: Yeah, those crying jags of days gone by were a picnic compared to the real ones. I think of your son’s father from time to time, and hope he is OK. Take care.