Perhaps you’ve seen this already, but if not… A seagull snatched the camera from a tourist in San Francisco and filmed the sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge. The tourist ran along the shore following the gull as best she could and found the camera on the sidewalk where the bird left it, then uploaded the footage to You Tube.
Pretty funny, I think. It’s clear it was taken by the bird, as well.
My Empty Chair
Today (Monday) was National Empty Chair Day, in honor of Clint Eastwood’s performance at the Republican National Convention last Thursday. We saw it live, and I thought it was hilarious. It was clearly not a speech, but a performance.
However many on the left were unable to discern the difference. They jumped to the conclusion that this man, who is 82, was a witless, rambling old fool who’d lost his marbles to age. So sad. Poor old Clint.
Right.
He’s an ACTOR! Actors act like people they are not.
Eastwood has directed 8 movies in the last five years, is quite articulate when seen in interviews and was coolly, competently, persuasive in that Superbowl ad he did for Chrysler last winter (It’s Half Time in America). In addition, he ad libbed his entire performance in front of a huge crowd and much of the nation. It was the empty chair, in which sat an invisible President Obama, that required the teleprompter.
At first, I’ll admit, what he was doing seemed strange and even mildly alarming. Until he talked to the chair. And then repeated or replied to what its invisible occupant was saying as well.
I’ve seen sketches like this before, and in fact, I think it was Mark Steyn that mentioned the similarity to an old Bob Newhart bit, where he seems befuddled as he talks to an invisible cohort. But in between Eastwood’s bouts of apparent befuddlement he let loose some real zingers.
“We own this country… Politicians are employees of ours…. They’re just going to come around and beg for votes every few years.”
“When somebody does not do the job, we’ve got to let him go.”
Anyway, the chair was such a hit, some folks decided to make this year’s Labor Day Holiday National Empty Chair Day. I first heard of it on Drudge, Power Line and Legal Insurrection, the latter suggesting people put out their empty chair, take a picture of it and then send them the photo. They got 100 photos the first night and the next day, between a continuing avalanche of photos and visitors from Drudge and Instanpundit, their server crashed.
So there was as LOT of interest in the empty chair. You can see some more pictures of empty chairs and accompanying decorations here at The Right Scoop.
Recently I came across this Monty Python clip called The Argument clinic with John Cleese. I had never seen it before and laughed so hard I nearly fell out of my chair. In fact, my husband came by to ask me something and I had to stop it and catch my breath just to answer him.
So, if you haven’t seen this (or even if you have) and would like a laugh…
Today I fertilized the plants. It was only supposed to take a minute…
I woke up at 6:15am. My hubby had gone off to run earlier, and I was mentally ready for him to return, shower and take a short nap on the couch before leaving for work. That meant I would not be able to do my normal sequence of routine, so I planned to get up, make the bed, maybe water, then go into the office and get to work on Sky. Yay!
Recalling that it had rained last night, I was pleased at the notion that I wouldn’t have to water the grass and could get started on writing that much earlier. I’d just take a minute to fertilize the plants front and back. It’s better to fertilize early when it’s cool, after all, and it’s only 8 plants in pots. No big deal.
Except, I have this problem with the space/time continuum. Despite my many years on the planet, during which the space/time continuum has never changed, I nevertheless assume this time that it will. It’s not a conscious assumption, mind you. It’s just that I continually think as if a minute can be both a real minute, sixty seconds, and yet elastic enough to accommodate tasks that easily take half an hour or even an hour, and still remain a minute.
Filling the gallon jug, measuring the fertilizer, going from the kitchen to the back yard to dispense the fertilizer, returning to the kitchen to repeat the process – several times – how could I ever think it would “only take a minute?”
Denial. It must be denial. I want to get started right away on writing. I want to get the fertilizing done early, so I guess I just compress the two in my mind as if in so doing I can make it so. But I can’t and it takes “waaay longer” than I expected and then I’m disappointed…
When really, all that’s happened is that once again, I’ve discovered I’m not God. (And a good thing or the Universe would have long ago spiraled out of control.)
Unlike God, I am bound to the space/time continuum and no amount of hoping or assuming or thinking is going to change that.
But I have to wonder… does anyone else do this? Or am I the only one?
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This post is in response to a WordPress Writing Challenge on the topic From Mundane to Meaningful. To learn more about the challenge and see some other entries, click here.
One thing I’ve always liked doing is making little books. I cut sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper in half width-wise, to make pieces of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches, fold them in half and either staple them down the side or down the middle and then glue a same sized or slightly larger piece of heavier cardstock around the outside. You can also hand sew the pages down the middle, including cover for a more “book like” effect. (You need an awl for that, though.)
This gives me little books into which I can transcribe notes from Bible class, favorite verses, quotes I find in books that I like, things that inspire or remind me of where I need to keep my head. They are small, so they fit in my purse and I can take them everywhere.
Here’s a picture of some of them.
And here’s what the inside looks like (I like to use different colored inks to differentiate between entries):
You can see the above book has been well-used. A couple of the entries on these pages are:
“If you were using the ten problem solving devices (“10 PSD”)* you’d never be in panic palace, you’d never fall apart, feel ‘stressed,’ uptight, never spend one second worrying about anything. You’d have the most fantastic tranquility in the world.
“God has provided perfect happiness through a place of rest, a place which does not depend upon any human factor in life. This is a complete dependence upon the One who is the source of joy and strength.”
and
If something is not important to you, you forget it. It flies right out of your mind. Another person’s sins belong in this category. Their failures, negative volition, sins, obtuseness, etc, are not your concern. If you are remembering them, you are making an issue of them and you’re out of line. No criticizing! Sins and failures are to be forgotten. Apply Bible Doctrine (“BD”) to yourself, not Charlie Brown!”
If you want to read the entries better, you can click on the picture for a slightly larger version.
*Those of you who were under Col Thieme’s ministry for any length of time no doubt recognized the voice there right away! 🙂 Yes, all three of these are notes I took from his messages. For those of you who were not Thieme’s students…
The “ten problem solving devices” are: rebound (1 Jn 1:9), the filling of the Holy Spirit, faith rest, grace orientation, doctrinal orientation, personal sense of destiny, impersonal, unconditional love for people, personal love for God, sharing the Happiness of God, and occupation with Jesus Christ.
“Bible Doctrine” simply refers to the teachings of the Word of God. I suppose he could have said “Apply the Word of God to yourself…” but I believe he was trying to differentiate between what you get from merely sitting down and reading the Word, as opposed to really studying it. So many (especially at the time he was teaching) seem to think that studying the Word means just reading it every day, when actual studying is much more rigorous than that. But that, too, is a post for another day!
When faced with two choices,
simply toss a coin.
It works not because it settles the question for you,
but because in that brief moment when the coin is in the air…
…you suddenly know what you are hoping for.
Or, in my case, in that brief moment after it lands and you see it’s heads, you know what you really wanted was tails!
Coin Toss quote by Anonymous
Literally!
Of course I don’t usually have a camera in bed with me, so I had to stage this the other day. It was payback, since I had to wake him out of his nap to get him to put his head on his bed while I took his picture. 😀
Have a great weekend! We’re supposed to get STORMS!
I am LOVING this show! It is so fun, and it’s been very useful as well.
But this last episode with the young bloodhounds, Duke and Daisy, was such a kick. Watching them act like Quigley used to was hilarious (okay, sometimes he still does act like that!). The clip below shows them running across the sofa, which Quigley did once long ago when he was so excited about my hubby coming home. In fact, that’s when they did it, too.
Duke’s snatching the pillow was typical as well: The dog guy, Justin, arrives and is talking to the owner and suddenly here comes Duke with the sofa pillow, which means the woman has to break off talking to deal with him. And then he runs under the table with it… ! ROTFL!!!
Yeah. Quigley does that with a sock. Or shoe, or anything he thinks we might value (a paper towel recently used! Hey, his discriminatory powers aren’t all that great). He trots in while we’re in the middle of watching TV and makes sure we notice, then when we tell him to bring it to us, the game is on.
Just like Duke.
And they are SO gorgeous and cute. The hound pleading look… yeah, we get that one too, the way they kind of wrinkle up their eyebrows while they beg. Quigley, however, does NOT drink from the sink faucet, because I would never turn it on for him. He will drink from the dog water fountain on the walking path — the only one of our dogs to do that.
Anyway, Justin had some suggestions for dealing with various behaviors that I think I’m going to use. The sit/stay for when my guests arrive is the first that I’m going to work on.
Here’s the clip of just the Duke and Daisy part from last night’s episode: “Duke and Daisy”
Love it.
After all that serious stuff I’ve been doing in the last few posts, I thought now might be the time to share another dog video from Life With Dogs TV.
In this we have to do a bit of detective work involving several suspects… Jed, Xena and Tank… hmmm… Make sure your sound is on.
Enjoy
It’s been a good week. I’ve been busy getting caught up, and even made some headway on Sky. All the way to page 14 of ch 2, and hopefully will finish it today or tomorrow. But it’s not left me much time to write many blogs.
So… I’ve got another video to share. I found this one quite by accident on a site called Life With Dogs. It makes me laugh so hard I cry. Maybe it’s a dog person’s thing. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen Quigley be this weird. Maybe it’s because it’s Julia Roberts the dog doesn’t like…
Anyway, if you need some laughter today… here you go.