Tuesday, June 1, 2010
What Makes Sense in the World...
Menu of the Day:
YouTube: This is a deleted scene from Pirate Radio that has one of the funniest and coolest dance scenes (To the tune of Stones' Get off of My Cloud). It's worth watching all the way through. The subject line here comes from this scene.
Music: Chris Pureka, Silo
Book: I just finished Hippie/Kylee's The Kitchen Readings about Hunter S. Thompson. I read it within 24 hours. I loved it. Brian's reading it now. Now i'm reading that Jodi Picoult House Rules book about a kid with Asbergers.
In my glass: Fresca with a splash of cranberry juice.
The best thing that happened: I finally found a makeup foundation that works with my skin. I've been searching since i found out at Christmas that they were discontinuing my Estee Lauder color. I tried their compact creme foundation and i love it alot! Also going to the Mandolin Cafe on Sunday and listening to open mic with Brian, my brothers and Kylee was a best thing. And Lee Dwyze winning American Idol was AOK with me.
What i keep forgetting: I forget.
Quote: What's the point in a secret if you can't tell someone? -- Pirate Radio
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1. These will be fairly short because i am not feeling witty or energetic at all.
2. I think it has something to do with 10 days of rain and clouds in a row. I took 2 hour naps every day of our long weekend.
3. I was going to put away my winter clothes and get out the summer things but i still need my winter things.
4. Who was it that said the coldest winter was the summer they spent in the Pacific Northwest? Or something to that effect. I think it was a famous person.
5. Why do i live here?
6. Don't laugh, but i actually bought another can of paint of paint today. ONLY a quart. Brian and i both decided i need to lighten the color of the one terra cotta-y colored kitchen wall so i'm using the lighter color i have used elsewhere in the kitchen. But i still love the terra cotta color in the halls.
7. You would think i live in a 5,000 sq foot home for all the painting i've been doing. But it's tiny, only 1000 sq feet.
8. I am SHOCKED by Al and Tipper's separation! Shocked i tell you! Who would have thunk the Clintons would stay together and they would break up?
9. I had nothing to do with their split, even though i used to refer myself as the "Gore Whore" back in 2000.
10. If i were going to do a politician, it certainly wouldn't be Al. i think i would pick Rahm Emanuel or Harold Ford Jr., though technically HFJr isn't employed as a politician anymore.
11. I almost can't watch Anderson Cooper in the Gulf anymore. It's sickening to see what is happening to my poor homeborn state of Louisiana.
12. If you were asked the question, What does make sense in the world? How would you respond?
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34 comments:
Had a great long weekend - didn’t think about work at all – what a shock when I got in this morning.
What I’m reading: Jo’s copy of “As Hot As it Was You Ought to Thank Me”. I’ve had it for a while, just now getting into it.
In my glass: Water. We have good tap water; I never bother to get the filter stuff from the fridge.
The best thing that happened: I got to walk on the beach everyday. There were minus tides so that made it easier to sea Starfish, Sea Anemones and other groovy sea things. Also the couple we were with includes a science dude so he can always name and explain things. For example - the black streaks I thought were tar on the beach is really just the iron content in the sand. I can’t even imagine (and don’t want to) what is happening in the gulf and how sick people who live there must feel.
What makes sense to me? Not Al and Tipper, I hope “news” folks don’t feel the need to delve deep into their lives to find some scandal; just let them grieve in peace.
Marriage does make sense to me. I know it’s not for everyone. I guess what really makes sense to me is to make a commitment when and if it is right to make. If you get it wrong, try again.
We were at a great wedding on Sunday. It was well planned and executed, in good taste and really represented the couple. Ron’s nephew - his first marriage was unfortunate but this girl is great and the whole thing feels right. When the bridesmaids started drinking blue drinks, Em said it was time to leave. Her theory is that blue drinks go down easy and the party changes soon after. Makes sense to me
I loved Pirate Radio. But then I have liked pretty much everything PSH has been in, even the self-important indie flicks (self-important indie flick being an admitted redundancy).
It's been unusually cool here for the time of year, but in this case I'm enjoying the difference. Even laid out in the sun on the deck Saturday. Unfortunately, that was the day half the neighborhood decided to mow, trim and edge, then cranked out the leaf blowers, so I was left with a little bit of sun and a whole lotta sinus headache.
I was pretty much a slug all weekend, mostly on purpose. I needed the rest. (I did clean up my bead corner a bit and made a classy bookmark to go with a set of books we are giving my granddaughter for her birthday next month...she's a voracious reader, which pleases me no end.)
My book most recently finished: Julia Child's My Life in Franc (on which the best parts of Julie and Julia were based). Very charming, but there's just something about French that sounds automatically pretentious and she liberally peppers the book with French phrases. Of course, she IS writing about her life there and she DID live there for quite a bit, so all's forgiven. (Plus, the phrases are easily understood in context, even if your French, like mine, is minimal).
Your summer/winter quote is most often used in reference to San Francisco, and has been attributed to Mark Twain, but it turns out that it is one of the many he didn't actually say. I bet that he'd wish that he had...it's awfully clever (and true of both Seattle AND San Francisco!)
Sad to hear of any marriage breaking up. Politics has to be as tough as the entertainment field, as an environment for maintaining relationships.
Rahm Emmanuel? Really? Must be the whole power thing.
I'm crushed for LA...and fearful for MS and FL coasts as well. Especially with the hurricane season that is being projected for this year...and season started yesterday -- days after a deadly storm already hit Central America. It's going to be a rough ride.
The real problem with 'blue drinks' is that they have a tendency, upon reaching critical mass, to come up as easily as they go down. And critical mass, for most ladies, is about 3. Good decision to leave that reception.
Forgot to answer your question: What makes sense in the world?
Mathematics. That's why I let it choose me. Numbers are pure. Mathematical logic is unchallengeable.
Everything else is subject to the whims of man...the arts and artifice.
Math endures. Pure and whole.
Math is a good answer, pearl. Not subject to opinion.
I didn't answer the question either because i was still thinking about it and i have an answer now.
What makes sense in the world to me is that if something continues to not feel right in your world ...then you must do something to resolve it. Sometimes it's not good enough to just accept it. Some things need to be fixed.
What doesn't make sense is ignoring the problem, or just complaining and stressing out about the problem when there is something you can do about it.
That makes sense to me. Life is short and it will only get shorter if you don't take care of yourself in these ways.
Oh yeah, and having a really good hobby - it doesn't have to be necessarily a talent exactly, but having something you really love that you believe you are good at makes sense to me.
What makes sense: balance, good and bad, yin and yang, pleasure and pain, hard work and leisure, diet and exercise
love, doing the right thing, living in the moment, taking responsibility, living purposefully, standing up for what you believe in
oh, and wine. definitely wine.
Definitely whatever gives you purpose makes sense. And yes, wine too.
this is off topic but it's on my mind so i'm not going to start a new blog on it but i'm just throwing it out there.
Kylee's mom loaned me the Jodi Picoult novel House Rules which is about Asbergers. when i read about this son she describes i'm thinking, OMG, i think i have a mild case of this. Reasons are:
1. HATE surprises - i mean really hate them.
2. would rather be alone than go to a party
3. hate bright lights and in fact keep my office lights very low and my house lights low.
4. not good at small talk
5. because i'm not good a small talk i might be liable to say something offensive without meaning to just because i jump into it.
6. VERY orderly and routine like. I run the same 3.5 mile route every day. i park in the same parking slot at work, i face all my bills and even give them to the Taco Bell drive up the EXACT change with the bills all faced.
7. i like staying at home more than going out.
8. when i go to places i like going to familiar places.
9. when the novel listed a set of numbers the Asberger's boy kept repeating, (These same numbers below), i saw the pattern immediately even though the author had not explained it:
1
1
2
3
5
8
13
21
Can you see it too? (I'm thinking pearl and louie who are math people will for sure.)
10. I can't seem to let go of what seems like an injustice or a wrong. This stuff bothers me in the union office way more than it bothers others.
11. when i buy something new and want to wear it all the time until i get tired of it then i switch to something else.
12. And i don't want to be this way. I want to be irresponsible and let things hang crooked and be a party girl. But i cannot. i wish i could take a drug that makes me more laid back about this stuff. I think this is why i can tend to be lazy and be comfortable doing nothing. It's survival.
So i took a test online.
http://www.piepalace.ca/blog/asperger-test-aq-test/
this is the link above.
And I scored a 26. I think they said that the average was about 11-16 and that Asbergers people scored a 32 or higher. I didn't like my score so i took the test again thinking i was being easier on myself this time.
I scored a 28!
But i am going to keep in perspective that when i read the novel "Still Alice" about a 50-something year old professor with early onset alzheimers, i thought i did some of the same things she did too.
i just took it for a third time. I scored a 28 again.
Oh yeah, and another trait:
13. I give way more detail about stuff than people need.
and
14. once i thought about this i couldn't stop thinking about it.
I want to be a slacker. Let ME be the Dude in the Big Lebowski. I LOVE slackers. (Only if i don't have to work with them.)
I really don't want to be this anal and Type A personality.
I don't want to be balance my stupid checkbook to the penny and then if it doesn't spend an hour trying to find the stupid mistake, and seriously, i mean this when i say there is rarely ever a mistake when i balance my checkbook.
So that's two strikes against me right there.
I want to go Barefoot in the Park.
Asbergers?
Oh really Jo.
You are just anal and anti social – not that there’s anything wrong with that.
I know Asbergers is real, but I am soooo weary of every body and their sister thinking they fall on the spectrum. Parents diagnosing their own kids, trying to get them labeled. A relative of mine was disappointed when it was determined her daughter didn’t have Asbergers. I guess then she could have explained the girl’s behavior, the same way she does her son’s – who was diagnosed with Asbergers.
To me it’s sort of like the direct marketing of prescription meds. – Folks diagnose themselves and decide their own treatments. I’m pretty sure I have restless legs syndrome and Fibromyalgia so I’m going to ask for Re Quip and Lyrica, oh yeah and what ever that drug is with the floating purple butterfly.
I get the issue, I’m pretty sure I have early onset Alzheimer’s; I diagnosed myself after reading Still Alice.
Clearly though, there is nothing wrong with your list of symptoms/characteristics; I share most of them.
What makes sense to me: the power of food, cooking, eating, serving, sharing meals with family and friends.
don't go barefoot, you might get Guinea worms.
louie, did you take the test? I am very interested in your score because i think it will be similar to mine! LOL.
the thing about my characteristics is that i want to be different than this. I want to be laid back. But i don't want to take drugs to be that way. So i want to blame my personality on something else.
And seriously that score is way to high. Even when i thought i was giving myself a break and going easy on myself when i wanted to be harder.
I gave you that Still Alice book to read, but remember i gave it with a disclaimer. Every menopausal woman who read it thinks they are in the same boat.
what else makes sense to me is :
EXERCISE. it's not fun. But it is necessary. The best advertisement EVER is Nike's
Just Do It.
The person who came up with that was genius. I really do subscribe to it even as i hate it.
i scored 11 lol i answered them very fast so my "first respose" so there might be some leway i i really thought about it but those questions are pretty hilarious like "i'd rather go to a library than a party" lol
BUT that numers code is pretty obvious - no one should feel bad if they dont understand it but its VERY obvious and i'm sure when anyone pointed it out, it would make complete sense
I think though -- on the "test" side of it, i have a little bit of it because alot of those questions I needed a perfect inbetween because I could honestly stay home by myself or go to a party and feel completely happy either way - but the test makes you choose one side or the other and i think i tended to always lean on the side of social because I knew thats what they were testing for. i need a better test. haha
but i do have a strong structural preference, in interior design my favorite aspect is codes -- i like to plan things but i also love to be (and can be) spontaneous i really think i am right down the middle
i took a test one time about whether i was left brained or right brained and i always assumed I was left brain (creative) because i go to art school and im getting a bachelor of fine arts and im very creative and for that test i was right down the middle as well!
i'm just a straight little noodle. hhaha.
Agh! I got a 35. Shitballs. So many of the things on your list here, Jo, are things I do, too. I'd suggest we start a support group, but I don't do groups :)
Here's a perfect (and awful) example of how bad I am at small talk. An older gal I used to see at the gym every day was gone for several weeks. When she came back, I asked if she was on vacation and she told me that her husband had open heart surgery and she was helping taking care of him. Instead of being sympathetic and polite, I actually told her to watch him since the suicide rates for people after heart surgery skyrocket and she should worry that he might kill himself. Then I went on and on about how painful the surgery is and how it affects people mentally so that they feel the pain will never end, so they just kill themselves...it was horrible. She looked gray by the end and she never really talked to me again.
The worst part is that I knew I was saying horrible things and it was making her feel worse, but I got so nervous that I just kept talking. And, I've done similar thing since, like when I suggested a coworker who complained about feeling tired a lot might have MS. Good grief!
Do you say stuff like that too?
A lot of people are like that, and I've never been able to figure out what motivates them. There's no real purpose to it, and the potential for real harm.
When people started finding out that I had cancer, it seemed like everybody had a horror story to share. Not a soul had a friend or family member who WASN'T deathly ill from the chemo or who DIDN'T die within months. I didn't get one single offering about an auntie who is a 50+ year survivor (like my aunt is) or who never missed a day of work during chemo (like I did).
Except from the survivors themselves...who I found to be an amazing group of supportive people. So I took that lesson to heart.
I think that Asperger's may be a legitimate disorder for some, but for most it's just an excuse.
Oh Lordy -- I think that I just did it myself. Oops. Sorry Ms Haines.
I still don't think Aspergers is the cause. I just think of it more as verbal diarhhea. Aspergers is just easier to spell.
I don't really know or believe i have Aspergers. I just know i want lower numbers.
I do want to blame the stuff about my personality on something like a disease.
amanda. OMG... i do indeed find myself talking and realizing i should shut up but i just rambling on. I haven't quite taken it maybe as far as your gal at the gym but i have to smile widely at your telling on yourself like that! I love the honestly.
Kylee, i would totally figure you for scoring an 11!!!!
I'm giving this Aspbergers test to my friends in the office. I think one will score like me and one will score like Kylee.
13 here. No surprise...I couldn't keep my job otherwise.
And I still love math.
Check this article out. I'm a firm believer that what we need to heal us is, for the most part, within us.
http://www.yoga-hawaii.com/learning-center/the-9-illusions-that-hold-you-captive/
so to make myself feel worse, both friends scored like Kylee. One scored a 9. And the other scored an 11. She was the one i thought would score like i did. But i forgot the whole social factor and she does love people and party atmospheres way way more than i do even, though she is overly organized as i am.
So now, ms louie, it is up to YOU to make me feel more normal. OR i am going to have to take it once again and cheat.
So thank you Amanda! LOL.
OK, pearl i haven't checked out the link yet but already i know yoga and me do not go together. I tried and i just don't get it. I also do not get meditation....at all. I cannot stop my brain and get it focus on something singular and relaxing. I have tried both.
OK. So I scored 21 on the test.
I was hoping I would be like an average math contest winner.
Problem is most of my answers are “slightly
Is there a syndrome “for can’t make a definite response on a Likert type scale?"
i think that you even ask that question puts you in a category on to itself.
also correction: did i say 'yoga and me'? oops.
I feel slightly better now that i know you scored a 21. I am going to take it one more time.
OK, this really makes me crazy. i actually truly believe i am being easier on myself by maybe revising my answers and i scored a 29 this time.
Here are answers i revised:
Other people frequently tell me that what I've said is impolite
I picked Slightly disagree this time because other people don't FREQUENTLY tell me. I tell myself that i do this.
I am not quite fascinated by dates as i chose before so i picked SLIGHTLY. But i always always remember my ex-husband's birthdays, and our anniversaries and the date that someone died etc. when i don't even mean to.
I will admit. I would rather go to the library than a party. I chose the same answer both times. And i say this knowing that they do NOT serve wine at the library.
I decided to change my being a diplomat answer to slightly agree instead of slight disagree because i have learned to deescalate situations in my years in the union office often. I am not totally tactless.
so i am puzzled by how i keep scoring higher each time i try and give myself what i think is a break.
I took the test twice; I scored 28 the first time and 22 the second.
Like louielouie, most of my answers were "slightly." LOL
I think the test is less an indicator of Asperger's than it is of certain personality traits, kind of like the Myers-Briggs evaluation.
I'm a copy editor, and a number of the traits the test describes as indicating possible Asperger's are almost prerequisites for people in publishing: attention to detail, ability to focus intensely on something to the exclusion of all else, doing something the same way each time.
What makes sense to me: my husband and my dogs (not necessarily in that order). A good sense of humor. Taking a walk. The rhythm of the seasons.
I should think that attempting to game the test pretty much proves that you DON'T have Aspergers...if you really did, you wouldn't care so much. LOL
Meditation is the only way that I have found to turn my brain off at night. Otherwise it just hummmms along from one random topic to another all night long and I get no sleep at all. It's my survival kit.
(my capcha: sness -- def. the anxiety I get from the onset of a sinus attack)
Here is one of my best things that happened: (I don't want to forget it before my next blog post.)
I did NOT want to got tutoring today. I am not sure why. It might be the weather, (17 days of rain and clouds will do that to you). I was just pissy today. It might be that i just don't feel like i know what i'm doing with them because it seems that they are struggling way too much and don't care.
And it might be that i just wanted to have a nice lunch and do what i want.
but i went anyway. And guess what. my girl "S" who is always gone because her mother is most likely keeping her home babysitting was not there AGAIN.
And "E" , the one who cannot add 2+3 has also missed two Fridays in a row now because she is STILL on a trip with her parents to Puerto Rico to visit family .
so it was just me and Princess (the one who cried my first day). And in my sack she saw the flashcards that i had bought for "E" . I never gave them to "E" because she told me that she had some already and when i asked did she ever have anyone work with her, she said no.
Anyway Princess asked if she could have them and i said yes. Then she asked would i work with her on those. And so we did. And i went through the whole deck. And she got every single card right. No hesitation. She just knows them. all the way up to the 12s. She told me she has been working at home on her own, writing them out over and over.
I laughed and told her i didn't think my husband could answer as quickly as she did. I was so proud of her. And she was proud of herself. And after that we worked on the problem solving ones like home many lemons would it take to make a 24 liter of lemonade for Justin Bieber's birthday party if it takes 5 lemons to make a 4 litre pitcher. And also i added sugar in there somewhere.
The other thing that happened is my blog post here that is titled "Why Teaching is So Freaking Hard" i decided to send to Mrs. E, their teacher the other day.
And I Mrs. E. shared it with the head secretary because when i walked in today it was the first thing the secretary mentioned about how much she love what i had written. And she asked me what it okay if she shared it with the other teachers in their building. And then she told me i should send it to legislators. (What is important about this is i used to think this secretary didn't like me because i worked in the union, but in the past two years we have made a connection.)
So i go to Mrs. E's classroom after that and she tells me she was so grateful for the blog post i had written that she was trying to frame her response.
And on her computer she had made my photo of her kids the wallpaper on her computer.
so what i was dreading ended up being the best part of my week.
pearl and EODE....Oh i love it when i am posting and come back and find people simultaneously posting!
pearl, in re: to gaming the test: you might be right. I was thinking the opposite, that by not letting this score go and trying to manipulate it to what i want it to be made me more that way!
OK, i will accept my score. Thank you EODE too for sharing!
I suppose being a secretary, like a copy editor, should be one who pays high attention to detail & i have to be a numbers person because i am responsible for all of the budgeting including research on the districts.
I feel better now with my neurosis.
What makes sense in the world:
Doing what you can for kids who don't have the advantages that they should.
oh i should explain that in regards to sharing my blog post to Mrs. E, i cut and pasted it and sent it to her, without the names (which i had already taken out of my post anyway.)
I did not share the blog.
I took the test and got a 13, too. I never would have dreamed that I would get the same number as Pearl ~~~ I am totally dismal at math and really thought that I have a lot of Asperger's traits.
But I did see the pattern in the numbers (on item 9) immediately, so I guess that I'm not so dismal at math after all.
And I have no desire to take that Asperger's test again.
I'm glad the I re-found your blog, Jo.
I forgot to answer what makes sense in the world ~~~ these days, I see very little sense anywhere. So I'll kind of re-phrase what I wrote on Eque's blog: I am making an effort to stop trying to control situations (and people) and just wait for them to sort themselves out in the appropriate time. I've always had a wide streak of Impatience: learning to practice Patience makes sense to me these days.
Hi Lynnie! it's good to see you!
I agree with your What Makes Sense in the World.
I am trying to work on not giving out advice or feeling like i have to take up the rein, most especially when i have not been asked to do so. I am trying to remember sometimes people just need to talk.
However, i will limit how much i will listen to them if it appears that they are really not willing to do doing anything about their problem.
The union office is a place where people do just that. And i have finally had enough.
What makes sense in the world. Is fixing the f*cking problem OR quit talking about it to anyone.
21 Average male or female computer scientist
scored 29 and Im not taking it again lol.
I dont know why I come read such interesting blogs when Im tired because all these posts are good but then Im too brainpoofed to respond to them.
I dont know if I have any disorders. Well except for periomenopause which accounts for much of my swiss cheese brain.
Crap. I have no idea why my last comment posted twice. And when I tried to delete one of them, it posted for a third time. Sorry . . .
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